


The Cogs of Time

by Melinaa



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: AU, Antagonist Claire, F/M, Lost Future AU, Professor Layton And The Unwound Future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-02-10 11:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12911190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melinaa/pseuds/Melinaa
Summary: I wonder, I wonder what you would do if you had the power to dream at night anything you wanted to dream. Everyone would have different dreams. How far would you be willing to go to fulfill yours? Would you betray your friends and take revenge in you enemies? Or would you go even further? Like... manipulating the cogs of time?





	1. Prologue I

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> So, this is another one of my fanfics which emerged from long nights and even longer talks with a friend. This is my first fic in the PF Universe, so please forgive me if my characters aren't always entirely IC. I'm also deeply sorry for any grammar mistakes, English is not my first language.  
> Anyway, I hope you like this chaper :) 
> 
> Melinaa

8th of September, 1974

 

Coughing heavily, Claire stumbled across the cobbled street. Supporting herself on her knees and leaning against the exterior wall of the shop next to her she was trying to regain her breath. Her sight was blurry, she had to squint her eyes, but they only watered in response. Her breathing was heavy, and she could barely remember how she’d gotten here. The last things she remembered was herself being surrounded by little clocks, a lot of metal and steam, it had been loud, and the air had been heavy…

“Oh, are you alright, my dear?”, she suddenly heard a voice next to her. Claire lifted her head coughing and was confronted with the worried face of an older lady. She was wearing a light green jacket along with a white sunhat and was smiling softly at Claire. She tried to speak but another cough was everything she was able to accomplish. So, she only nodded, trying to smile at the lady while brushing away her tears. Her eye felt like she had been standing too close to a bonfire and the direction of the wind had suddenly changed, blowing all the smoke towards her. The lady frowned. “Dear, there is some ash on your jacket and in your hair. Are you sure that everything is alright?”

 _Ash?,_ Claire thought bewildered and looked down. Indeed, the hem of her lab coat was grey with ash. She grasped the material between her fingers, thinking. Where the hell could that come from?

“Yes, everything is alright”, she then hurried to reassure the lady after realizing that she had been quiet for some time now. Claire looked around. Her surroundings seemed somehow familiar but she was sure that she had never been here before. It all reminded her very much of London but it wasn’t the London she knew. Everything seemed so… new and…

Claire suddenly startled. “Uhm, this may seem odd but would you be so kind to tell me today's date? I guess I got something mixed up”, she laughed a bit nervously from which her head started to hurt, but the lady smiled. “Of course, my dear, it’s no shame to get things mixed up. It happens so often to me!”, the lady reassured her. “Today is the 8th of September. My grandson was just put to school yesterday!” she exclaimed happily before she looked at Claire again. “But you surely didn’t want to hear that, did you?”

“Oh, it’s fine! How old is your grandson then?”

“He just got six at the 29th August of 1974, he is such an intelligent little boy, my daughter could put him to school earlier. He loves to…”

Claire let the old lady talk but her mind was miles away. Everything just came back to her. The lab. The time machine. The clocks around her. The experiment which had taken place on the 8th of September 1964. Which meant…

“Oh, I’m sorry, my dear, I have to go! My husband is waiting with the tea. I hope you’ll have a lovely day!” The lady smiled on last time at her. “You too”, Claire managed still to say before she started to laugh. At first, quietly but soon her laugher echoed through the street loudly. The time machine had worked! She’d been traveling ten years to the future!

She didn’t care that all the people around her were looking at her funnily. The time machine had worked! It had really worked! They had been successful! Claire was so happy, she wanted to hug the entire world. She grinned like she was insane but she recollected herself quickly and remembered what she, Bill and Dimitri had agreed on. If the experiment worked, she should search for Dimitri or Bill to tell them, so they could send her back to her own time. Or for herself. Claire shivered a bit at the thought. How much would she have changed in ten years? She guessed, she was close to finding it out.

She looked around and luckily, the surroundings were familiar to her. She knew, that the Gressenheller University wasn’t that far away and decided to go there. If the time machine had worked, Bill, Dimitri and she were surely Professors there now, teaching the students everything about the physics behind time travel. If they had made a lot of process during the last ten years?

While walking she was deep in her thoughts that’s why she barely had an eye for her surroundings. But more than once she had to stop to catch her breath. Time travelling definitely caused an upset stomach and she was still feeling quite light headed. If they had found something against time traveling sickness? Claire hoped so. And what was she doing in this time? Would she be a famous researcher? Professor at Gressenheller? What about her family and friends? What about Hershel? And their relationship? Would she be… a mother?

Claire thought about Hershel. Yes, what about him? How much had he changed over the years? Were they still in a relationship? Maybe married? Or even already having a family?

Claire smiled at the thought brightly while she was leaning against a light post to catch her breath. The sun was shining on her face and warming her skin. Being married to Hershel in this time was highly possible. She had always been able to read him like an open book that’s why she knew that he’d wanted to propose to her after their dinner last week. No wait, ten years and one week ago. But she would never let him know that she knew that’s why he still thought she was clueless. Or once had thought and she had been…

Claire’s head was spinning. Thinking about time traveling like this had always caused her and Dimitri headaches during long nights of doing research. She could remember those countless nights all too well. But these thoughts could wait for now. At least, until she’d met up with Bill and Dimitri. Claire really hoped to find them at Gressenheller. But when she continued walking a moment later, she already knew she would find them there. After her return to her own time she would have surely told them to meet her at Gressenheller in ten years, so they would be there. And surely Hershel would be there, too. He had never known what exactly she and her colleagues had been working on, but he would surely know after their successful test. Everyone would know.

It wasn’t far anymore; the lab had always been quite close to the university. Only now Claire wondered why the lab hadn’t been there anymore where she’d appeared after her journey through time. After arriving in the future, she had been standing on the street below the lab. Up there had been a roof terrace, she remembered, but forgot about it when she saw a part of the impressive building of Gressenheller University now. Her steps automatically accelerated, and she grinned. She couldn’t wait to meet her colleagues. She had so many questions.

Unlike what she had seen so far of London (which was actually not that much) Gressenheller had barely changed over the years. Maybe a few of the bushes on the campus in front of the building were new, but that was it. She walked along the path dignified. It felt like she hadn’t been here for ten years. Which was actually true. Wait, no. It wasn’t. Was it? Claire’s head started to spin again. Time travel was something complicated. But she loved what she was doing. Sincerely.

She entered the University and looked around. She had no clue where to go. She took a step in one direction, then stopped. Students were everywhere in the hall, most of them seemed to be late the way they ran around. Claire felt a bit lost, only standing there and looking around while all the students hurried along the corridors. One young man even tripped over and lost all his books he had carried. Relieved she could do something, Claire hurried towards him to help him collecting his books for what he smiled at her. It reminded her a lot of how she and Hershel had met for the first time all those years ago. Five years. No, fifteen… Five... Fif… Whatever.  

“I know you are stressed, but I wondered if you could help me?”, she asked the young man while giving him back a few books and papers. He glanced at his wristwatch, then sighed. “I’m already late, so it doesn’t matter. You helped me, so it is the least I can do. So, how can I help you?”  

Claire smiled. “I wondered if you knew where Professor Layton has his office. He is still working here, isn’t he?”, she asked. They man nodded. “Of course, he is. Professor Layton’s office is just around the corner over there, the third second door on the right with the top-head on it. You can’t miss it.”

“With a top-head on it, you said?” Claire was stunned. Was he still…

“Yes! Like the one he’s wearing all the time. You know, nobody has never seen him without it. Some say, he doesn’t even take it off while he’s sleeping!” He laughed before he looked at the watch again and suddenly fell silent. “Oh no, I really have to go now. I hope I could help you.”

“Yes, yes… thank you”, Claire managed to say while being in deep thoughts.

“You’re welcome!” The young man disappeared and left Claire behind. She smiled. Hershel was wearing a top-head? Maybe even the one she had once given to him? She chuckled. She had to tell him that as soon as she returned to her own time. _“Hershel, imagine, I met you in the future and you are still wearing the top-head I once gave you! See, I knew you would like it sooner or later!”_ He’d be in for a surprise. Claire chuckled at the imagination. This would probably be the first time that she could actually surprise him. The time she confessed that she liked him left out.

Though, he wouldn’t be surprised if she approached him in his office now. He should already know it since she would have told him ten years ago. Maybe he would await her with a smile and a cup of tea as usual? Would her future-self be there, too? Claire didn’t know. She hesitated once she’d reached the door. Did she really want to do this? The corridor was empty, so it wouldn’t change anything if she just waited a moment longer. She took a deep breath to collect herself before she finally lifted her hand to knock at the door. That was after all the reason she was here for. She waited for Hershel’s voice to let her in but nothing came. She knocked again in case he had missed it (which happened quite often when he was preoccupied in one of his books or an interesting article about archaeology) but when no reaction came, she carefully opened the door and peeked inside.

The office was empty.

Claire closed the door behind her and looked around. The room was a mess with all the papers and books lying at various places. A pile of papers covered the couch and the desk was cluttered with books, notes and pencils. She smiled. Just as she remembered. Hershel and she had always had their problems with being organized and keeping their workplaces and their flat cleaned up. Even a cup of tea, still halfway filled, was standing on the side table next to the couch. Claire crouched down sniffed. Earl Grey, Hershel’s all-time favorite tea. It made her incredibly happy that some things didn’t seem to have changed over the past ten years.

But she was a bit puzzled anyway. She would have expected Hershel to be here. He should know that she would be here by now, so where was he? Maybe something had disturbed him and he would come later, hoping he wouldn’t have missed her. Claire looked around again. A top-hat, looking exactly like the one she had given him, was lying on a little table next to the big shelf full of books. Was it hers? Or was it another one? Probably a duplicate since the young man from the corridor just told her that Hershel was never seen without his top-hat.

She walked over to the cluttered desk. She didn’t dare touch anything since the books and papers seemed to be something important. Hershel’s things lying around were looking like a mess, no question, but he had his very own system, just like her, and it was better not to disturb it. Her gaze settled on a picture on his desk. She carefully lifted it up to examine it. It showed Hershel sitting on the very couch of this office, a little boy in a blue sweater and a blue hat sitting next to him. Both of them smiled at the camera. _“Hershel hasn’t changed a lot”_ Claire thought and smiled. He had gotten a bit older and she had never seen him wearing a suit, but it fitted him. But the boy… he made her wondering. How old might he be? Maybe ten? He looked a bit older than that but that didn’t exactly exclude the possibility that he might be Hershel’s child and… _her son_.  
Could that be? She gulped at the thought but then shook her head. _Nothing to worry about_ , Claire told herself. She squinted her eyes but couldn’t spot any similarities to Hershel or herself. Both men only shared the brown hair but nothing more.

She put the photography back when her gaze fell onto the pictures on the wall. The boy was on a few more pictures, one time cuddling with a fluffy hamster and feeding him with an apple slice, another time with a girl. The girl’s brown hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was wearing an orange dress. The picture had been taken on the couch behind her, too, both children hugging each other and smiling. The girl must be a few years older than the boy. Claire wondered who she was. She couldn’t be the boy’s sister, she was too old for being Claire’s and Hershel’s child. Another picture showed her alone, this time she smiled proudly at the camera, a ribbon around her small figure, telling Claire she’d placed fifth at some contest. Was she a niece of Hershel? No, neither Hershel nor Claire had siblings. Maybe the boy’s friend? But why had Hershel hanging this in his office then? And why was there a picture of the girl alone then? The first one would be more a picture someone would place at home. But then again, this office was Hershel’s second home, Claire just knew it. He has always spent a lot of time in the university. But she didn’t have a clue why the second picture was hanging there. She had to ask Hershel once he arrived here.

On some other pictures, she saw Hershel with his parents, Lucille and Roland. Claire smiled. She loved his parents and had barely ever seen nicer people. On another she could see Hershel, Clark, Brenda and the Boy with the blue head again. The photo had been taken somewhere unknown to Claire.  
She already wanted to turn around when a reversed picture frame caught her attention. Claire took it and turned it around. Her breath got stuck in her throat.

It was an old photography of Hershel and her.

Claire covered her mouth in shock. Why would Hershel do this? It had always been one of their favorite pictures. It showed her and Hershel during their lunchbreak on the campus. They were both sitting in the grass, Hershel leaning against a tree, having his arms wrapped around Claire’s waist. while Claire had her legs over his, a paper block on her lap and was chewing on the end of a pencil which she was always doing while thinking. Hershel had given her a riddle to solve and was smiling softly at her. Claire still remembered how surprised she had been when Hershel had given her the riddle before pulling her close. He had never been one to show much affection when they were around other people (always trying to be a gentleman, already then). “ _Let’s see if you can solve this riddle_ ”, he had whispered into her ear and smiled softly. Claire had looked at him a bit startled before she’d kissed his cheek and started to solve the riddle. In the end, she hadn’t been able to do so because Clark, who had taken the picture without their knowledge had approached them with a “Hey, you two lovebirds!” and they had quickly parted a bit, spending their lunchbreak with him, forgetting about the riddle.

She couldn’t remember the riddle anymore.

She sat down in the desk chair, grasping the picture frame tightly. Claire didn’t understand. Why had Hershel done this? If he didn’t want to have the photo in his office anymore, he could had just taken it away. But turning it around like he didn’t want to see it anymore but at the same time didn’t dare to put it away? That was something you did with pictures of loved ones who had died and not with…

Claire startled. What if she… had died? She began to shiver and hurried to put the photography back in place. No. No, that couldn’t be. She couldn’t have died. Maybe Hershel wasn’t here because of that. Because he would not be able to tell her that she had died. Claire put a hand over her heart and took a deep breath. _Calm down, Claire,_ she told herself, _do not make any rash assumptions. Maybe someone else was it or Hershel hung it up the wrong way round. You know him, he is sometimes so deep in his thoughts, it is very likely to happen._  
But the bad feeling in her stomach did not want to vanish. She sat on the desk chair again, now skimming through all the documents on the desk. She didn’t want to read them, she only needed to occupy her mind with something else. At least, until her gaze fell onto a leather-bound notebook with a yellow note sticking out which caught her interest. Without thinking, Claire opened it.

Bad idea.

Claire shrugged as she saw that most of the pages had been ripped out with brutal force by someone who definitely had not been Hershel. He was messy with his research, yes, but if even if he didn’t need the information anymore, he would have never ripped them out like that.

But a few news articles were still intact. Claire flipped to the front page and nearly fell off the chair once she had read the headline. _“Information Concerning the Explosion at the Institute of Polydimensional Research”_ was written down, the handwriting clearly being Hershel’s. The thoughts of her dying some when during the last years came back to her mind and made her shiver. She took a deep breath before she flipped the page. Maybe it had just been a little explosion. It had already happened a few times, but it had never been anything too bad. But why had Hershel a notebook about this…

One look at the page basically told Claire everything she needed to know which mad her drop the notebook in shock. “ _Explosion at the Institute of Ploydimensional Research_ ” was the headline on the first page of the newspaper. “ _One scientist dead, one badly injured_ ” was the subtitle.  
Somewhere between the lines was a photo of her. It was the one she had one her student identity card.  
The article was dated from the 9th September 1964. One day after the experiment which was the reason she was currently here.

Claire starred in the air. She had died. But how? And why? During the experiment? No. They had checked the formulas and all the data over and over to ensure that she would not encounter any problems. And how could she be here if she had… died? How was this possible? Tears started to build in Claire’s eyes. Her family. Her friends. Her colleagues. Hershel. All of them thought she had died that day. A sob shook her body. She didn’t know what to do but sitting in Hershel’s office, surrounded by the smell of Earl Grey and old book, and trying to contain her sniveling. What if they all had forgotten her?

Claire didn’t know how long she was sitting there. She cried until she had no tears left and was starring out of the window emotionless. Outside, the sun was starting to set, bathing the office in a soft, orange light. Claire didn’t know what startled her but suddenly she jumped up. She had to leave. Now. If she had died that day, no one knew that she was here or what was to do. Her only options were Dimitri and Bill. She had to find them, at least one of them. She picked up the notebook, laying it on the desk, trying to re-arrange it the way it had been before but gave up quickly. No matter how much she tried, Hershel would know immediately if someone had moved around his things. Which was also the reason why she had almost never been able to surprise him with something.

Claire looked around one last time before she left the office. Closing the door behind her she was already thinking about where to find Dimitri, which was why she didn’t notice the two persons coming her way. “It will only take a few minutes, Luke, I promise”, Claire heard an all too familiar voice. Looking up, she saw Hershel with the top-head she once gave him, the boy (Luke had it been?) with the blue hat next to him. “Alright Professor. What about if I…”

Claire didn’t hear the rest of the sentence because she had quickly turned around and hid herself in the room next to Hershel’s office. Luckily, he hadn’t seen her yet. Checking her surroundings, the room turned out to be something like a little kitchen. She leaned against the kitchen unit and took a deep breath. That had been close. She had to be more careful.

She would have to stay here for a few minutes until she could be sure that the two of them had left. Making the best of the situation, she wanted to think of where she could most likely find Dimitri when the door suddenly opened. Claire gasped as she saw the boy from the photo. He looked at her with big eyes. Oh no… did he know her? Hopefully not. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Miss, did I startle you?” he asked her politely. He didn’t seem to recognize her. Claire sighed and shook her head. “No, you didn’t, don’t worry.”

He smiled at her before he made his way to the water kettle to boil some water. Claire’s eyes were practically glued onto him following his movements. He took a cup from a shelf, a tea bag of Earl Grey and then tried to reach a saucer from a higher shelf but was too small. Relieved that she could do something, she got the saucer for him. She didn’t like standing around without anything to do.  
The boy smiled. “Thank you, Miss!”

“Please, call me”, Claire begun but stopped abruptly. Oh no! Damn her immense kindness. She had to think of something. “Celeste”, she quickly added before the pause became to long. To boy gave her another beaming smile. “Thank you, Celeste!”

She forced a smile onto her lips. “And who are you, young man?” He brewed the tea highly concentrated and answered only when he had put the water kettle back to its place. He turned around with the probably brightest grin Claire had ever seen. “My name is Luke Triton and I am the apprentice number one of the famous Professor Hershel Layton!” she told her proudly. “And as a real gentleman, I’m always at your service, Miss Celeste!”

Claire chuckled a bit. Luke Triton. So, he was Clark’s son. And Hershel’s… apprentice? How nice.

Luke tilted his head now that he could look more closely at her. “Are you alright, Celeste? You don’t look well”, he asked. Claire startled a bit but immediately smiled again. “I’m alright, it was just a really long day for me.” Looking out of the window Claire noticed the sun had already almost disappeared. She had to go.

“I wish you and the Professor a nice evening”, she said before she hurried along the corridor to ensure to be out of Hershel’s sight once Luke opened the door. “Goodbye, Celeste!”, he still called but she didn’t turn around anymore.

After leaving the building she came to a stop before it. The orange light made everything look like it was glowing, and tears started to build in her eyes again. She had to realize once more that she wasn’t a part of this world anymore.

She took a shivering breath before she started to walk.

She had to find Dimitri and Bill.


	2. Prologue II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If anything goes wrong tomorrow, try to find me. Go to my flat or… yes, go to my flat. I’m sure I won’t have moved in ten years. And if I have, I’ll be there, I promise. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be there.” 
> 
> ... 
> 
> "I haven't forgotten what I promised you all those years ago."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!  
> I've got a new chapter for you just before 2017 comes to an end. I hope you all had a great year with many wonderful moments to live and fanfictions to read :) 
> 
> I wish you all a great new year! 
> 
> ~ Melinaa

8th of September 1974 

Surprisingly, it had taken Claire very little time to find Dimitri.

She’d figured that neither Bill nor Dimitri were famous researchers or even still working at Gressenheller since their experiment had obviously gone terribly wrong. If the conclusions she’d come to turned out to be correct, of course. 

She’d wandered around the contorted side streets of London trusting that no one she knew would meet her there until it had gotten dark enough to walk along the busier streets of London without getting recognized. Cars and buses were still driving around as if it was just noon and men and women in business suits were hurrying around the city. Now, that she could take a closer look at London, she was shocked to see how much it had changed in the past ten years and she could barely keep up with it.

Claire had eventually decided to search for Dimitri. They’d always been good friends and he had cared for her a lot. _“If anything goes wrong tomorrow, try to find me. Go to my flat or… yes, go to my flat. I’m sure I won’t have moved in ten years. And if I have, I’ll be there, I promise. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be there.”_ Claire was a bit surprised that she could remember everything he’d said but she was glad now. It was the straw she clutched at. While she was walking through the streets, holding back her tears, she was repeating these words over and over in her head.

Claire couldn’t believe that she wasn’t a part of this world anymore. But at the same time, she wondered what could have gone wrong back then. They had checked their calculations over and over. She had been so sure of their work that she’d decided to step into the time machine without hesitation when Bill had offered her the opportunity. _“Be the first person who travels through time, Claire!”_ he had said.

No one could have known what would happen.

_That was, at least, what Claire thought._

It was a long way to Dimitri’s flat, but one Claire knew by heart. She couldn’t count anymore how often she’d been there doing her research with Dimitri or studying with him for the upcoming exams. Hershel had often had to pick her up long after midnight or she’d even crashed on his couch when it had gotten too late. Sometimes they hadn’t slept at all. Since she’d begun studying at Gressenheller, Dimitri had been her best friend and his flat like her second home. She had been so grateful and excited when she’d gotten to know that she would work in the same laboratory thanks to him.

Just thinking of these old times hurt her. Especially the thought of Hershel. He’d always smiled so softly at her when he’d picked her up from Dimitri’s, leading her drowsy figure into his car and later to bed after they had moved in together. Or she’d woken up because of the smell of tea when she’d fallen asleep over her books. Hershel had either woken her up and convinced her to go to bed or made her a cup of tea, a little note next to it ( _“A good-night tea for you. Please, go to bed when you read this. -Hershel”)_ when this had happened.

Claire looked up the apartment tower Dimitri was living in, her hands deep in the pockets of her lab coat. It had started to rain lightly; the rain drops started to stick on her glasses. She looked around but couldn’t find Dimitri. Hopefully he was at home. Hopefully he hadn’t forgotten.

 _“No, he wouldn’t forget me”,_ Claire thought and checked the doorbell nameplates. _Allen,_ was written on the same nameplate as it had been ten years ago. He really hadn’t moved.

Claire rang and rang the doorbell, but it was never answered. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She was so tired. All she wanted to do was sleeping. Sleeping and waking up from this terrible nightmare. Waking up to a cup of Earl Grey Hershel would bring her before he would leave for his new job as Professor Layton at the Gressenheller University.

But this wasn’t a dream. Claire slid down the wall of the house entrance where she would be more or less safe from the rain until she sat on the ground. She pulled her legs towards her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. Closing her eyes again, she laid her head on them and hoped Dimitri hadn’t forgotten what he had promised ten years ago.

*

Dimitri pulled the collar of his light-grey coat higher to protect him from the light rain. It had already been raining for hours as he had just heard while riding the bus home. It had been a long day in Catacombs beneath London where it, of course, hadn’t been raining at all. It had been hot and humid as usual while he and the craftsmen had worked on the cooling system to create some artificial wind in the underground city. Dimitri hoped that the machines would be working perfectly soon. He didn’t want to wait much more longer. He had already waited for ten years. Exactly ten years.

Exactly ten years since the experiment had failed, ten years sine he had lost Claire, ten years since Bill Hawks had taken all the money to start his political career and become the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Dimitri gnashed his teeth at the thought. He had willingly sacrificed Claire to get the money and the fame. Had concealed his errors with the money, had smothered the fact that he was just a money-grubbing, deceitful person. He had known about the mistake. He had known it, even before Dimitri had told him about the mal calculation. Bill wasn’t stupid.

Well, that was, at least, what Dimitri had always thought. It had almost been too easy to blackmail him. He had thought Bill would have his tricks, but apparently, no, he hadn’t. A year after the accident, Dimitri had come to Bill and _“asked”_ him for a bit of money or he would allow some information regarding the accident, which he had covered up so nicely, to get out. He had barely blinked and Bill had already pulled out his chequebook. Dimitri had thought Bill would immediately throw him out and accuse him of blackmailing. But he had been way too scared that his _good name_ and _reputation_ would be soiled. It had grant Dimitri a nice sum of money during the past nine years.

It was nowhere near enough for what he had done to Claire. To them all.

Dimitri had lost his job. Countless people had lost their lives or someone they loved. Dimitri smiled bitterly. Claire had sacrificed her life for this. His beloved Claire. For weeks, he had sat in his flat and cried bitterly over the empty chair across the table where Claire had been sitting countless night, studying with him or doing their research. He had cried in front of her grave too many times, of course only when Hershel hadn’t been there. Dimitri hated him. He hadn’t loved Claire as much as him, hadn’t known her as long as he had. He couldn’t stand the _great Professor Layton_ with his stupid top-had and the little boy with the blue hat who was glued to him like a dog to his toy. Whenever Dimitri saw him or a photo of him in the newspapers, he smiled. The so-called _Gentleman_ seemed to have completely forgotten about Claire during his years filled with _adventures_ and _famous_ _discoveries_ and _findings_.

Dimitri couldn’t stand him just like he couldn’t stand Bill.

He rounded the last corner from where it was only a few more steps to the apartment tower he was living in. He searched for his key inside of the too many bags of his jacket when he suddenly noticed someone sitting in the house entrance. Dimitri stopped his movements and looked at the person. They seemed like a homeless person, but Dimitri had a strange feeling that he knew the person from somewhere.

A thought suddenly hit him and with presentiment, he lightly touched the person’s shoulder. It was a woman, her damp, light-red hair fell over her shoulders and felt surprisingly familiar beneath Dimitri’s fingers. “Hello? Are you alright, miss?”, he asked her cautiously.

The woman jumped up and looked at him with horror before her eyes suddenly filled with tears just as Dimitri’s as both of them realized who was the other person.

“Dimitri?”

“Claire?”

Before he could say anything else, she threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. He could hear her sobbing next to his ear, felt her body shivering as he slowly accepted her hug. Her voice was like a piece of music to his ear, a music long forgotten, but oh so beautiful. Her smell was still the same, only mixed with the smell of rain now.

“I-I’m s-so glad, I-I f-found you”, she managed to say between more sobs. Dimitri still couldn’t believe all of this. What had happened? Why was she here? She was dead. Her body should be lying on London’s cemetery. Had the time machine actually worked?

When she pulled back, Dimitri immediately missed her warmth. She whipped away the tears and tried to smile at him. “I-I’m sorry for-“

“Don’t be”, Dimitri immediately interrupted her once he found his ability to speak again. Only then he realised that she was shivering. “Would you like to come in? I guess we have a lot to talk about”, he asked her awkwardly. Claire nodded. “That’s what I’m actually here for.”

His hand shivered when he finally opened the door, letting her in first. As she followed him upstairs, he heard her say, “You haven’t forgotten what you promised me ten years ago, have you?”

_How could he?_

_“If anything goes wrong tomorrow, try to find me. Go to my flat or… yes, go to my flat. I’m sure I won’t have moved in ten years. And if I have, I’ll be there, I promise. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be there.”_

He stopped and turned around.

She looked at him, impatiently.

"I haven't forgotten what I promised you all those years ago."

He continued his steps without waiting for her response. She had to get into his flat to get warm quickly. Only God knew how long she’d been out there in the rain.

Again, being a Gentleman, he let her in first. “I’m sorry, it’s a bit messy. I don’t have visit that often.”

Claire turned around and smiled at him. “It’s alright. I mean it’s not like it has always been tidy when I was here, right?”

“Right”, Dimitri muttered. He turned on the heater in the living room, gesturing towards the couch. “Please, make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.”

Dimitri hurried over to the kitchen where he had to lean against the kitchen unit for a moment to take a deep breath. Claire was here, alive, not dead. The time machine must have worked, at least for a little moment. He must have been successful with stabilizing her body in the future. There wasn’t any other explanation, there couldn’t be.

 _And she came to you_ , his mind said while he began to boil some water for the tea as he always did when he came home. Dimitri couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t forgotten what he had told her ten years ago. Well, it was only two days for her, but anyway. She hadn’t forgotten it, she had come to him for help. Not Hershel. _Him_.

He brewed the tea, Black Tea for him, Earl Grey for Claire, as usual. He found himself wondering if she still liked Earl Grey before he remembered that it had only for him been ten years since their last encounter.

When he entered the living room, he found Claire sitting on his old, grey couch, a blanket around her tiny figure. Her lab coat was lying next to her on the back of the couch. She had also taken off her shoes and pulled her feet under the blanket, too. She was smiling when she saw him, and Dimitri had to remind himself again that it wasn’t an illusion or a dream, that it was reality.

“Here, some Earl Grey. This should help you to warm up. Do you need anything else?”

She shook her head. “No, thank you”, she said quietly before she took a sip of her tea. Dimitri looked at her. Her eyes were red from crying, and her half-dry hair seemed tangled. She’d laid her glasses onto the little table in front of the couch, which was covered by papers and newspapers. His handwriting was on everything, every little space was filled with numbers and calculations regarding the time machine. Claire would only have to take a closer look at them to know what they were about. She was incredible smart, something Dimitri always had admired her for.

The sipped their tea in silence but when Dimitri placed his cup on the table she looked up at him. “I… I guess we have to talk”, he said quietly. Claire nodded, placed her cup next to his and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. Dimitri gulped. What was the best way to tell someone that they actually died ten years ago? He didn’t know. There wasn’t any way to tell that to someone.

He cleared his throat. “Ten years ago, when the experiment took place, you… you, uhm…”, he started to stutter, and Claire sighed. “I know. I died”, she just said, looking at him with sad eyes. He as unable to speak for a moment. How…?

“I… When I arrived here, I went to Gressenheller before I came here, before I knew that something went wrong. I thought it would be a nice surprise for Hershel if I showed up in his office. It wouldn’t be a surprise as I would have told him ten years ago that I would visit him in the future but, you know. I thought you all would maybe be there if you knew I would go there. But I met no one, there was just this notebook on his desk with… with the article of the London Times which said that I died and that Bill was injured.” She gulped and whipped away the tears that were now rolling over her cheeks.  
“Then I realized that something must have went terribly wrong and I came here just as you told me the day before the experiment.”

Now, it was Dimitri who had to gulp. “ _She didn’t come to you first”,_ his mind laughed at him, _“Did you really think that she would have chosen you over Hershel? Please.”_

“What happened that day, Dimitri?”, she asked him, ripping him out of his thoughts. Her voice was shivering, something he had never heard before.

What should he tell her? A lie? The truth? She looked barely rugged enough to endure the truth, but he also couldn’t bring himself to tell her a lie. She had the right to know what had happened to her that day. And especially _why_ it had happened.

Claire watched him patiently, so he began to talk. “That day… you and Bill, you were already at the lab. I… I was at home, checking the calculations again. I don’t know why I did it, I just had the urge to do it. And… and I saw that one of the first few calculations we did was wrong. There only was a little mistake, one you could so easily miss if you didn’t calculate it again. I was shocked when I got to the right answer and realized that the experiment wouldn’t go as planned. I called Bill, I ran to the laboratory, but I wasn’t quick enough. When I arrived there, it exploded right before my eyes.”

Dimitri was caught in the memory how the lab had exploded, how the people had been running around, crying for help, trying to extinguish the fire. The smell of fire and smoke seemed to fill his nose again, he could hear the cries of the people around him. He didn’t notice the tears streaming down Claire’s face.

“When I arrived up there, the lab lay in ashes. Bill was badly injured and you… you weren’t breathing anymore. I tried everything but… but I couldn’t save you. When the ambulance came, I had to tell them that it was too late.”

Claire sobbed next to him uncontrollably, but he couldn’t bring himself to comfort her. He was sure that if he moved, he would shatter into thousand pieces. He needed some seconds before he was able to continue speaking.

“Your body… before they took it, it showed some signs. Your molecules seemed to… their stability was too weak. Your body was neither in your time nor in the future but at the same time it was in both times. I tried to stabilize it in the future, but I failed. That is, at least, what I thought because, apparently, you are here now.”

“Molecular instability because of time traveling…”, Claire murmured as if she was trying to understand what he had said. Dimitri remained silent to give her the time she needed. She pulled the blanket even tighter around herself before she looked up. “How could we miss the mistake? All three of us?”

“We didn’t”, Dimitri simply answered. “Bill knew.” He didn’t say more. He didn’t know if Claire could handle the truth, but she would have to.  

She didn’t sob. She didn’t break down. She just starred at him. “B-Bill? How? Why? What happened to him?”

“Bill Hawks is the current Prime Minister of Great Britain”, Dimitri murmured darkly. “He sold the rights on the Time Machine and its building plans behind our backs. He knew about the mistake, but he wanted to test the machine with you. He got all the money, he had used it to conceal the mistakes and to prevent the truth from being revealed, and to start his political career. I lost my job, countless other people died or lost their loved ones due to the explosion.” Dimitri finished here. He didn’t tell her about the blackmailing or the other things that were going on right now. That was a story for another time.

Claire sat there, motionless, unable to talk. He could only hear her breathing accompanied by the ticking of the clock on the wall. It was currently 19:34 p.m.. He asked himself how long exactly Claire had waited outside of the house. Way too long. He had promised her to be here if anything went wrong and he hadn’t been. He felt horrible.

But he was, at least, here now. He could comfort her, look after her as he had always done.

Suddenly, Claire sat up. More tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she didn’t look like she wanted to be comforted right now. “He… He knew and… and did the experiment anyway?”

Dimitri nodded. “I called him as soon as I realized the mistake we’ve made. But he wouldn’t listen. He just kept silent. He didn’t seem shocked, not even surprised. _‘I didn’t plan to stop the experiment, Dimitri. By the way, you’re too late. Consider yourself fired.’_ That is what he had said. I remember it as clearly as my first actual experiment. I took the next bus and ran to the lab, but…”

“But you were too late”, Claire finished his sentence. Dimitri could only nod. She took another sip from her tea before she started to talk.

“Bill seemed annoyed when I arrived at the lab. I was a little bit late as well and he urged me on to finally do the experiment. I thought it was because we only had such a little time frame in which the experiment would work… But he… he was only scared you would come and prevent him from carrying out the experiment…” More tears started to float and finally, Dimitri was stable enough to sit next to her and comfort her. Claire clung to him while she cried, probably not being able to understand how Bill could have done something like this.

Dimitri didn’t really know what to say while he held her. The typical “Everything’s going to be alright” seemed so meaningless and hollow to him in this moment that he didn’t dare to say it. So, he continued to just hug her. It was a wonderful feeling for Dimitri to do so. Claire wasn’t a person who cried easily, especially not in front of other people. He had never really seen her cry, only years ago when her grandmother had died. But back then she hadn’t allowed him to offer his condolences.

Claire needed a long time to get a hold of herself. The blanket had slipped from her shoulders, revealing her shivering shoulders, and Dimitri hurried to cover her again. When she looked up, her eyes and cheeks were red, but her eyes were determined as usual. A question seemed to bother her.

“Dimitri?”

“Yes?”

“What happened to Hershel? After the accident?”


	3. Prologue III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Zwei fremde Augen, ein kurzer Blick,  
> die Braue, Pupillen, die Lider.  
> Was war das? Kein Mensch dreht die Zeit zurück...  
> (The German author Kurt Tucholsky, "Augen in der Großstadt", 1930)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but as student you're always stressed and your day would have to have 48 hours and it wouldn't be enough. Anyway, I hope the first month of 2018 was great for you all!  
> With this chapter, the prologue is finally finished, yay :D The "Summary" of the chapter is passage from a German author's work we just approached in school and I thought it would fit quite well here. I'll give you the translation: "Two foreign eyes, a short gaze//the brow, pupils, the lids//What was that? No one turns back the time..." 
> 
> I hope you like the chapter! ^^  
> ~ Melinaa

9th September 1974 

*

For Dimitri, it was hard to realize that all of this shouldn’t be a dream. Yet at the same time, it was so easy to know it was reality. Dimitri really was conflicted as his gaze was fixed on Claire. He had crossed his arms in front of his chest to prevent his body from doing what his mind was screaming.

Claire was sleeping on his couch. Something that had happened often back when she had still been alive. But, over the last ten years, he had also seen this picture in his dreams countless times. In his dreams, where he would lean against the door frame, a cup of tea in his hand, and she would smile at him, a smile of invitation. Where he would sit down next to her, place his mug on the table before he would pull her close and kiss her. Claire would lay a hand on his cheek as she had always done it when _Hershel_ and she had kissed (unfortunately, he’d had to watch this way too often). She would smile beneath his lips while her taste would fill his mouth, a taste so sweet that it was shockingly easy to become addicted to it.

Dimitri shook his head violently and looked down before his thoughts could go any further. _This is not a dream, this is reality,_ he reminded himself and took a long, deep breath before he dared lift his head to look at her again. In contrast to the past when Claire had always been sprawled out on his couch, had taken more place than anyone could think a body as tiny as hers could even need, she had curled up into a little ball beneath the thicker blanket he had given her. Her glasses were lying on the table which was still covered by all his research. She hadn’t even taken a look at it so far, but Dimitri couldn’t blame her for it. A lot has happened in the last 24 hours, not just to her.

When the water kettle made itself felt, Dimitri left his spot at the door frame and went over to his little kitchen to brew the tea. He actually preferred coffee in the mornings now, but so much had changed for Claire, he at least wanted to make her as comfortable as possible with this little thing as long as she was here. He would survive without coffee for today.

Claire was waking up when he entered the living room again. “Good morning”, he greeted her and sat next to her but, at the same time, kept a safe distance. She blinked a few times at him, looked around before she realized where she was. Dimitri saw it in the way the look in her eyes changed. “Good morning”, she sighed tiredly and sat up. She was still wearing her trousers from the other day and the top she had been wearing beneath her blouse. Back then, she had even had some clothes to sleep in at Dimitri’s flat, but for now, she had been forced to sleep in her clothes from yesterday.

“How did you sleep?”, he asked her while handing her the cup of tea he had made for her. He sat next to her and took a sip from his own tea as he waited for her answer. “Good”, she replied but it was clear to him that she was lying. Black shadows were beneath her eyes and her hair was all tangled as if she had been tossing back and forth the entire night. Or hadn’t slept at all.

“How did you sleep?”, she asked him before the silence could become too heavy.

“Good.”

Another lie.

He had barely slept, had always had to think about Claire and the project. What would Clive say if Dimitri would tell him about the sudden changes? They had to act quickly, now, when everything was barely finished. It wouldn’t take long until Claire’s body would show the first signs of molecular instability. It didn’t matter that Dimitri had provided for this over the last years, because he didn’t know the impacts it would have on Claire.

And when the sleep had decided to finally visit him, it had greeted him with dream. Horrible dreams. Wonderful, hopeful dreams. He had welcomed them, had welcomed it when there was a reality where he had been able to save Claire.

Sometimes even a reality where she loved him as much as he did. Where she kissed him, laid in his bed, next to him. Where she smiled at him when she woke up with tangled hair and sleep in her eyes.

But he didn’t tell her that.

Not any of this.

She took another sip from her tea and yawned. “What are we about to do now?”, she asked the obvious question they had decided to avoid yesterday. Dimitri took a deep breath.

“Do you have to work today? What are you actually doing? You haven’t told me about it yet.”

Due to obvious reasons.

“I would like to introduce you to someone. I will show you where I work then, too”, he replied deliberately. What would she say about their project? About the so-called _Future-London_? He, of course, wouldn’t tell her what exactly Layton’s part in all of this was. She would have to find it out for herself soon enough.

“Yes? Do I know this someone? Is he a colleague of yours?”, she asked curiously which made Dimitri smile. He loved her curiosity, always had. It was always accompanied by one of her beautiful smiles and sparkling eyes Dimitri had seen in his dreams only for so long.

He smiled back at her. “No, you don’t know him yet. And yes, he is a colleague of mine. He will be delighted to meet you.”

“He will? Does he know about the time machine?”, Claire asked, now slightly panicking. He hurried to calm her down. “Yes, he does. Don’t worry, Claire, it is alright. Now… we should leave soon, he doesn’t like to wait.”

“Fine.” She emptied her cup of tea. “I need to go to the bathroom. You don’t happen to still have some of my clothes here?”, she asked him. Dimitri hesitated.

He indeed did still have some of her clothes here. He had never had the guts to throw them away. He clung to them as if this would have kept Claire alive. And it had. In his mind, at least.

But again, he didn’t tell her that.

So, he shook his head and heard her heavy exhale. “We can go shopping later. We would need to, anyway, your clothes are still covered with ash”, he offered her, pointing towards her partially grey lab coat. She followed his gaze and sighed again. “Yes, that… that would probably be a very good idea.” She suddenly sounded even more tired than she had before. His eyes followed her as she left the room. Dimitri sat on the couch and covered his face with his hands.

To be honest, he was scared.

Would someone recognize Claire as soon as they would leave his flat? What would happen then? What would she think of his project? Of the perfect copy of London which he and Clive had built up to build another time machine to save her. Would she like it? Would she be thankful? Would she help him? Or would she just forget him and go back to _Hershel_ once they had solved the problem of the molecular instability caused by time travel? Would she really do that after everything he would have done for her by then?

No, she wouldn’t, Dimitri was sure of that. Claire was far too good for doing something like that.

 

When they left the flat, Dimitri was nervous. Really nervous. But it had been ten years since Claire had officially died, so it was no wonder that no one recognized her or him.

Their first stop was a clothing store. Dimitri was waiting near the door while Claire searched for some clothes since he definitely wasn’t much of a help in this, had never been. Claire had only laughed softly when he had tried it some minutes ago as well as ten or eleven years ago. Well, he neither had a sister nor a girlfriend, so no one could expect him to be a professional in things like shopping.

Dimitri didn’t know what exactly bothered him when Claire asked him, after she had payed, what he was thinking of her outfit. She was beautiful, of course. There was no moment, where she wasn’t. But _something_ bothered him, yet he couldn’t tell what. She was wearing a pair of green trousers, a light white pullover and a light pink scarf. He had already thought she would choose something green since it was her favorite color. There wasn’t anything funny about her white pullover, it was just a plain, white one. Maybe he was wondering about the scarf? She had never been the typical girl, wearing all pink and a lot of make-up. But the light pink went wonderfully with her light red hair and the white pullover.

“Perfect”, he smiled at her nevertheless, gulping down the bad feeling. “But one thing is left.” He put a white sunhat on her head, pulling it a bit too deep into her face to make her laugh. “Stop it!” She smirked at him, then adjusted it. “Why a hat?”, she asked when they left the clothing store. “Just an extra precaution. I’m a bit nervous someone could notice you. I hope you are okay with this.”

With this, the light atmosphere from just a moment ago had disappeared. Her smile faded, and she nodded. “Of course”, she muttered as they walked down the street. Dimitri wanted to slap himself for making her sad again, but it was a necessary thing. He was scared someone would recognize her and alert someone. It would only take one single gaze. Bill would get to know it faster than Dimitri would be able to blink, and he didn’t want to know what Bill would do to Claire then.

 

During their ride on the bus, Claire had gotten her hands on today’s newspapers. Dimitri studied her expressions precisely while she was reading. It hadn’t even taken him a second to realize that a photo of the _Professor_ was on the cover. He hadn’t been able to prevent her from reading about the newest of Hershel’s and the little boy’s adventures. Luke, if he recalled it right.

When Claire gave the newspaper back to the woman she had borrowed it from, Dimitri watched her even closer. She was deep in her thoughts, he knew it because of the way she looked out of the window with her eyes being fixed on something only she could see. He didn’t disturb her until they had to get off the bus.

She took a deep breath and looked around. Midland Road was one of London’s main roads which meant that they had to get to one of the less vivid streets quickly. He led her through some little alleys. Just a few more minutes then they would be more or less safe. He looked over to Claire. She let her gaze wander to admire the London she was seeing for the first time and smiling at every person they passed. Dimitri had always loved her for this fact, that she was always so friendly. It was a characteristic he would never have. But right now, it scared him. It wouldn’t take more than one person to recognize her and Bill would now. He had his men everywhere. Only one gaze. Two eyes that looked at her direction. A look of someone who had once known her.

Dimitri accelerated his walking and pulled at Claire’s hand as a sign for her to follow.

But before they could go any further, she suddenly gasped for air and would have almost fallen over if he hadn’t caught her in time. Her body was glowing lightly, and Dimitri’s body released probably all the adrenaline it had stored somewhere.

The effects of the molecular instability were appearing a lot earlier than he had thought.

“What is happening?”, Claire panted after Dimitri had pulled her to a near wall which could support her even better. “It’s alright. It’s probably just a secondary effect of time traveling”, he ensured her, hating himself for lying to her again. He had never lied to her that often before.

He looked around. It wasn’t far to the Clock Shop anymore. “Are you alright? Can you walk?”, he asked her worried. Claire straightened herself and nodded. “Yes. Where do we have to go?”

He led her through the alleys, supporting her during the way since he felt that she still was a bit weak. Claire didn’t say a thing.

He knocked on the door of Spring’s and Cogg’s shop, waiting for it to open, since the shop was actually still closed. Cogg looked at them for a short moment before he quickly let both of them in. Dimitri had already been here countless times during the last years but for Claire, it was probably the first time. She looked around interested, examining some of the clocks.

“Dim… Mr. Allen, how can I help you?”, Cogg asked with a side glance to Claire. Dimitri shook his head. “No need for this, Cogg, she is a friend and… and a colleague. We are in a bit of a hurry, so we need to get down quickly.”

“Alright. Please, follow me.”

Since Claire seemed to be way too interested in one of the clocks, Dimitri took her hand and pulled her with him. She flinched a bit but followed him nonetheless the stairs up to the back room. He noticed again how she examined her surroundings until her gaze fell upon the enormous clock in the back of the room. She froze.

Dimitri knew exactly what the clock reminded her of.

“Is this… is this a time machine?”, she asked stunned. Her eyes were huge. “No, it’s not”, he answered her. She looked at him, clearly being disappointed now. He could understand her all too well. “It only looks like one. It’s a huge elevator that will bring us to the catacombs beneath London. Watch out.”

Not a moment too soon, because the elevator started to work and brought them down with incredible speed. Dimitri still remembered the first few time he’d used it. He had almost thrown up, to be honest. Claire didn’t look any better than he had once the elevator had stopped. He supported her because he was afraid she would faint right there right now. “Are you alright?”

His concerning voice made Cogg look up. He frowned but didn’t say a word.

“Yes, I am… Where are we?”

“Come”, he gave her his hand and led her through the shop. Spring smiled at them as they left but didn’t say anything because her husband came up to her to tell her something Dimitri couldn’t understand. He was way too nervous to show Claire their project.

He opened the door and let her pass first, just like a real gentleman. Her eyes were as huge as the sun by the time she as standing on the street even though all she had seen by now was this little alley.

Dimitri led her through some streets until they were standing on the Midland Road again where the Bus failed for five years. People here took the underground. It was a lot better since the underground didn’t produce fumes.

Claire gazed around before she looked at him. Dimitri missed her expressions entirely otherwise he would have noticed that she wasn’t as excited as him.

He beamed at her like a little child at its parents after getting their Christmas presents. “And? What do you think?”

 

*

 

What did she think?

Did she wonder how Dimitri could have accomplished so much? This huge city, this copy of London, with all the little details which made it so real? Yes.

Did she think that Dimitri was totally crazy to do something like that? Yes.

Did she ask herself why he had built this in first place? Yes.

…

Was she keen on knowing it? …No.

“It’s… enormous”, Claire finally managed to say and gulped. That was… crazy. All of this. It was admirably, too, yes. In… _some_ way, at least.

“Come”, Dimitri took her hand again and pulled her with him gently. “This way. We will take the underground, it’s a lot quicker than walking.”

The tube station looked incredibly old and as if no one was ever using it although Dimitri assured her people here would use it on a regular base. “We didn’t have the time to revise it yet since we have more important things to do right now”, he had told her. The cooling systems didn’t run smoothly yet. It was stuffy and hot here which made Claire wish for a short-sleeved shirt instead of the white pullover she had bought earlier today.

In contrast to all the other parts of London, Chinatown hadn’t changed much. The shops were different, of course, and Claire couldn’t remember that there had ever been this high Towering Pagoda right at the end of Scarlet Street, but when they left the underground, it was the first time she didn’t feel like she’d just traveled through time. She really wanted to spend some more time here but even though Dimitri didn’t say anything she knew he wanted to continue their way quickly. There was no need for hiding themselves anymore as they had done in the real London, but they spoke quietly anyway. Claire had taken off her hat and was carrying it with her. It was actually a nice hat, she realized after eying it closely.

Upon arriving at the gate that separated the Towering Pagoda from the rest of Chinatown, they were greeted by Ward, a man with a white top-hat and glasses he didn’t need Claire assumed according to the way he looked over them. He let them pass without a word but not without a glance and even after taking several steps and the Belltower Gate being closed behind them Claire was sure he was still watching them.

“Ward is one of our guards. You’ll see a lot of them around here, but there is no need to worry”, Dimitri told her while they were headed towards the Towering Pagoda. “Why? Is this a dangerous place?”, Claire asked uncomfortable. All she could see were warehouses but who knew who or what was hiding behind them…

“No. The Towering Pagoda is where I… where _we_ work. It must be protected. But the members of the Family are also all distributed across the city to… look after the people.”

“So, there is something dangerous. What is it?”

He sighed. “Claire, it’s really nothing you have to worry about”, he muttered under his breath. Did she only imagine this, or did he sound annoyed? Claire sensed that he didn’t want to talk about it any further, but she didn’t know why. She would have kept asking Dimitri, yet this time, she fell silent and only followed the pull of his hand which was still holding hers. 

While making their way up the Towering Pagoda, Claire couldn’t deny how beautifully it had been created. It fitted in perfectly with the Chinese dragons on the walls and she loved the rooms which were each a little riddle. Dimitri urged her on to just use the secret ways along the walls, but she had always loved puzzles, even before she had gotten to know Hershel. Her father had always proposed riddles to her when she’d still been a little child and she had solved them without exception and soon started to think of her own to give them to her parents and friends.

So, all Dimitri could do was sighing and letting her solve all the puzzles. Her favorite was the Dragon Bridge. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the beautiful design of the golden dragon wiggling along the white ground once she had solved the sliding puzzle. Claire wished she could have taken a picture of it as they passed the bridge. But for now, she had to rely on her memory.

_She didn’t know yet that she would never forget what would happen the following weeks._

The room they entered was light-flooded in contrast to the tower which made Claire squint her eyes momentarily. It was a big office with a window that occupied the entire wall in the back of the room. The other walls were covered by book shelves as high as the ceiling. A desk was in the middle of the room, the floor covered by a dark red carpet. In front of the desk were three men standing. Two of them were dressed entirely in grey, the other was dressed in red and brown. He seemed to be quite young, barely twenty. Claire frowned. Why was he here? Had he done something against the law? He had crossed his arms and was listening to something the two members of the Family told him (Dimitri had explained her on their way up here that all the guards belonged to the organisation “The Family” which was the police down here) She thought the boy had done something illegal. But why had they brought him here? This was Dimitri’s office after all (that was, at least, what Claire thought) and he wasn’t a police man.

She was surprised all the more when the two men left the room without the boy. He turned towards Claire and Dimitri but waited with a greeting until the door was closed. “Dimitri. Who did you bring with you? I thought we agreed on no one being allowed in here besides us”, he growled while watching Claire closely. Who was this boy?

“This is Claire. Claire Foley. Claire, this is Clive Dove, my colleague”, Dimitri introduced the two to each other, gesturing towards Clive, then towards Claire. This boy was his colleague?! He was barely twenty!

Clive made a step towards her and offered her a hand anyway. “As you were already told, I’m Clive.” She took his hand a bit unsure and shook it. “Claire. Claire Foley. How does it come that you work together with Dimitri?”

He let go of her hand and fixed his jacket. “Before I answer this, I would like to know who you are and why exactly you are here, Ms. Foley”, he told her calmly, crossing his arms again. Claire looked over to Dimitri. How much could she say?

Dimitri explained in her stead. “Claire was… working on the experiment ten years ago as well. She was the…”, he gulped and stopped, but caught himself immediately to continue, “the human test subject Bill performed the first try of the time machine with. It… it turned out that it worked, but only for a single moment. I met her just yesterday evening after I came home. Exactly ten years after the experiment. I needed a place where she would be safe. And I thought she could maybe help us.”

Clive nodded and took a deep breath but kept silent anyway. Since Dimitri didn’t say anything Claire followed his example. He, after all, knew Clive better than she did.

“I’m sorry what happened to you”, Clive finally began after several seconds of uncomfortable silence, “My… my parents died due to your… _experiment_ as well. I’m helping Dimitri to build a new time machine down here as you might already know.” His words were only muttered, and Claire didn’t miss the accusing sound of the word _experiment_. She knew it was because they were accompanied by a painful memory. Hers were as well. “I’m sorry for that as well. I didn’t know about this malfunction otherwise I would have stopped the experiment immediately”, she ensured him quietly. But she sensed that he didn’t care. She couldn’t blame him for it. He knew her for two minutes, didn’t know if she was telling the truth or lying to make herself look better than she actually was.

After another moment of uncomfortable silence, Clive turned to Dimitri to talk to him about the cooling systems they currently worked on. It sounded like their talk hadn’t happened, like he hadn’t just entrusted her with his faith. Claire watched the two men closely. Why was he here? What was his part in all of this? He sounded far too old for the age he might have. To Claire, he was still a child. A child that had lost his parents due to the failure of their experiment all those years ago. Due to their stupidity, their negligence. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be part in this absurd plan to build a new time machine. The dead couldn’t be saved from their fate.

She couldn’t be saved from her death.

It hit Claire like sledgehammer. She wanted to live, she didn’t want to be forgotten by all those people she still loved so much. But it seemed like her faith was already cut in stone.

Was it?

Before she could think any further, Clive said goodbye to them. Claire waited until he had left the room before she spoke again. “What was that?”

“Clive. My colleague”, Dimitri answered her as casually as if they were talking about the weather. He walked over to the large window and looked down. Claire followed him. She was angry. “That’s not what I meant, Dimitri, and you know it! What is he doing here? He is a child!”

“Clive at the verge of twenty-three and perfectly capable of knowing what he is doing”, he glared at her which made Claire even angrier. She starred at Dimitri, hands on her hips and a dangerous glare in her eyes. “What is his part in all of this? You can’t tell me he is working on the time machine with you! What is he? And what did you tell him?”

“He actually is. A few years after… after the accident, when he turned eighteen, I called him. I knew that his parents had died due to… due to Bill’s mistake and I wanted to help him. He had inherited a lot of money. We built all of this together to have a safe place to work on a new time machine. He just wants to save all the people, his parents, who died due to Bill’s thirst for power! You can’t tell me that this is something bad, Claire.”

No, she couldn’t. “It’s not. But that you only want him because of his money, that is disgusting! You built an entire city to build a new time machine. Why? I don’t understand it, Dimitri.”

“You will soon”, was all he answered her. And Claire, who normally was a peaceful person, wanted to slap him. She felt like she was standing next to a person she didn’t know anymore.

“I don’t even want to know it! What is with this people that live here? Did you abduct them or what did you do?”

He didn’t answer her at all, this time.

“What has gotten into you, Dimitri? I barely recognize you anymore!”

“Because for me, ten years have passed! Ten years, in which I blamed myself for your death! Ten years I used to search for a way to save you from your fate! I’m doing this for you, Claire! For you and all the other people, to save them!”, he suddenly barked, turning around and making a step towards her. “I’m doing this for you, Claire…”, he breathed, looking at the ground.

Claire took a step back, shaking her head. She didn’t know what to think anymore. Her mind was spinning, and everything became just too much. Thousand thoughts were running around inside of her it, but she was unable to think straight. She clasped her head between her hands to prevent it from spinning, but it didn’t help.

“Claire?”, she heard Dimitri’s voice from far away. But she shrank back when she suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder.

“Claire?”, he asked again, unsure what was happening.

“I… I just need some time for myself. It’s a lot to take in for me right now”, she explained hesitantly, slowly. She startled slightly when she noticed how her voice was shaking. It was something that never happened. Dimitri only nodded, not wanting to rush or push her. “Alright. Please, come with me.” He hesitated for a moment before he took off. Claire followed him as he walked across the room. Between the glassy wall and the bookshelves was a gap she hadn’t noticed before. A circular stairway was behind it and they made their way upstairs which led them to a little flat.

The flat also contained great windows along one of the walls like the office which Claire was glad about. She loved light-flooded rooms. It was comfortably furnished, with a lot of dark red, dark green and gold. The wooden floor was dark brown as well as the many bookshelves. On one wall, a white picture with a golden dragon on it was hanging. It looked like the design on the bridge and Claire immediately felt pulled towards it. A few plants had been placed here and there. Actually, the entire flat seemed quite cozy.

“This is my flat”, Dimitri explained as he watered one of the plants. Again, casually, as if they had just come home from work and were talking about their day. Claire was feeling a bit uncomfortable, yet didn’t know why, when turned towards him. He was living here? “You can stay here as long as you like. The bedroom is over there and next to it is my study”, he pointed to his left, “and the bathroom is over there.”

Wait, what? No, she couldn’t sleep in the same bed as him. She was still with Hers…

He looked up and seemed to notice that she wanted to argue with him but also noticed her sad expression. “I insist that you use the bedroom. If I’m here I almost always crash on the couch. I’ll mostly be staying closer to the lab”, he explained, more hesitantly in the end, as if he wasn’t sure if he was saying the right thing.

Claire nodded slowly, gulping down her feelings. “So, this Towering Pagoda isn’t where you are working?”

“Partially”, he smiled at her warmly and came to a stand next to her in front of the huge window. Together, they looked across the city for a moment, before he turned towards her. “Feel free to stay here or go to the city. I will tell Ward to let you in and out whenever you want to. I can give you a map of the tube stations around here if you want me to.” He took another step towards her and wanted to lay his hands on her shoulders but reminded himself in the last moment, that she didn’t want it. But when she didn’t pull back, he did it anyway. He cleared his throat. “Just don’t go upwards again, please. It would only take one person to recognize you for Bill to know. And I don’t know what would happen to you then”, he told her concerned. Claire exhaled slowly and smiled at him. He was only worried, and she appreciated that.

“I promise.”

“Good”, he also smiled. Claire took another step towards him and hugged him. “Thank you, Dimitri. For everything.”

“You… you’re welcome”, he answered her before he let go. “I have to go now. Feel free to do what you like. My home is your home.”

Claire’s gaze followed him until he was out of her sight before she let herself fall onto the dark red couch in the middle of the room. She laid her head into her hand and closed her eyes. She was tired, so tired. Tired of everything. So much had happened just because she had said one simple word to Bill. _Yes_. _Yes_ , I’ll test the time machine with you. Just because it had sounded so alluring when he had promised her to be the first person who traveled through time. This little _Yes_ had changed everything.

She was so relieved that Dimitri accommodated and helped her. Everyone else seemed to have forgotten about her. Hershel wouldn’t have had a place for her. Dimitri had told her that he was always traveling across the world, solving one mystery after another, barely being at the university anymore. Always with the little Luke. Clark’s and Brenda’s son.

Claire wondered how her friends were doing these days.

She wondered how Hershel could have gotten over her so easily. Dimitri had told her that he had met him during her _funeral_ (How much she **hated** this word) where he had been crying over her. But a few days later, he had already worked at the university again as if nothing had happened. He had gone to his adventures soon, had travelled across the world, smiled for the newspapers. Had never showed any emotion.

Had found a new _girlfriend_.

She wished she hadn’t asked Dimitri for this information.

He had only told her reluctantly about this _Emmy_ who he had been with for some years. Emmy was beautiful, Claire hadn’t been able to deny this when Dimitri had shown her a picture of them from an old article in the newspapers speaking of Hershel’s discovery of the _Golden Garden_.

Claire hadn’t taken more than a short look.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy for him. She wasn’t blaming him for moving on.

Only for the fact that it had happened so fast. The article was only three years old, but Dimitri had told her that Hershel was with Emmy for some more years already.

She felt a tear running down her cheek. It had barely taken him a year to move on. Quickly brushing it away, she stood up and wandered through the flat. The thoughts were still running inside of her head, but the solitude made it easier for Claire not to get overwhelmed by them. She took a few books off some of the shelves but put them all back quickly. She was too stirred up to concentrate on the words. She took quick looks into the other rooms before she entered Dimitri’s study. It was in the same style as the other and she immediately felt as comfortable in here as in the rest of the flat.

The desk was cluttered with papers, pencils, rests of the eraser, here and there was an ink stain on the papers. She took a closer look and must have been blind to not realize what it was.

Calculations regarding the time machine, over and over again.

Claire sat down and flicked them through. Calculations over calculations, angry ink spots where Dimitri had aggressively cancelled words and numbers, had made them meaningless. He had done it over and over.

For her.

Claire took a pencil and overhauled one of Dimitri’s mistakes. They couldn’t make another one with the second time machine. He had shown her the mistake, they had missed back then. It had been so obvious, Claire didn’t realize how they had been able to overlook that. But _they_ hadn’t. Bill had. It had been one of the calculations he had done. He had told them that there was no need to double-check them.

He had known.

All along.

And the longer Claire was sitting there the clearer one thought became:

_Bill would have to pay for what he had done._


	4. Initial plan - alternative plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It may have been the wrong thing to do”, she gave in, “But it was the only way we had.”  
> “It wasn’t. There is-“  
> There wasn’t even time to blink, that quickly Dimitri had grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closely to his face. “There has been no other way!”  
> He pulled Clive even closer and hissed so quietly that Claire couldn’t hear it, “Don’t you dare say that if you love your life.”  
> Clive only looked at him, being extremely tempted to tell Claire the entire truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, dear Layton fans!  
> I'm so sorry it took me another month to update this story but my graduation exams are coming up soon and I have a lot of studying to do. Last week, I fell ill and had finally time to think about this story a bit and I actually made it to finish the chapter!  
> I hope you like it :) 
> 
> Have a wonderful day!  
> Melinaa

_Two months later…_

_“Claire gave me this for you.” Clive handed the man, who was dressed in black entirely, a letter Claire had given him some time ago. Through to unexpected events, he hadn’t had the chance yet to give it to his fellow. Shipley took the letter, removed the seal and read it pensively. Growing scepticism crept across his face and made Clive wonder what Claire might have written down._

_“Tell her, I will follow the instructions as soon as I will have a fair chance to do so”, Shipley told him and sighed. “What is it about?”, Clive wanted to know. He hadn’t asked Claire as she hadn’t seemed that well when he had promised to bring the letter to Shipley. She had been quiet and deep in her thoughts, and Clive hadn’t dared disturb her._

_“I can’t tell ya, boy, but… I’m sure, Dimitri won’t like it.”_

_*_

_“These people were innocent! How can you do dare do such a thing?”, Clive was shouting in anger, pointing a finger at Dimitri who was glaring at him._

_“Keep down your voice, you aren’t any less guilty than we are!”, Dimitri called out, his voice being as loud as Clive had never heard it before. “I am! I told you that this is the wrong way!”_

_“Well, what would have been a better way? Tell me, you oh so intelligent child!”_

_“There is-“_

_“Stop! Both of you!”, Claire screamed, making herself felt. Dimitri and Clive both were so shocked (no one had ever heard her voice being that loud before) that they completely lost track of their fight. She huffed in anger. “It may have been the wrong thing to do”, she gave in, “But it was the only way we had.”_

_“It wasn’t. There is-“_

_There wasn’t even time to blink, that quickly Dimitri had grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closely to his face. “_ There has been no other wa _y!”_

_He pulled Clive even closer and hissed so quietly that Claire couldn’t hear it, “Don’t you dare say that if you love your life.”_

_Clive only looked at him, being extremely tempted to tell Claire the entire truth._

_…_

_ 17th of November 1974 _

*

The artificial light was shining brightly by the time Clive made his way to the Towering Pagoda but thanks to the finally working cooling system, a nice wind was blowing through underground-London. People around him were attending to their daily businesses as usual, as if they had always been living here. Which was the case… more or less. Members of the Family were patrolling through London’s streets, their grey clothing being more present than the coloured clothes of the other citizens. Clive himself was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a white shirt and a brown jacket as he walked along the street, blending in perfectly with everyone else. He ran his free hand through his hair as he made his way downstairs to the tube station. His other hand was holding onto the strap of the bag that was hanging on his left shoulder, a brown package being its content. Clive had gotten it from Shipley just as he had left his apartment near the clock shop half an hour ago. In contrast to Dimitri and now Claire, he was barely living in the Towering Pagoda. He was working all over the city, where ever his help was needed, and Chinatown was way too far off the beaten track for him to be living there permanently. But it was perfect for Claire and Dimitri since the research lab wasn’t too far away and Chinatown was the key element of the city and the only reason everything was working so smoothly. Thanks to the… _evil Professor Layton_.

Clive took the underground which would bring him to Chinatown like so many other people. No one recognized him as someone special, he was just a citizen of this futuristic London like everyone else. Clive scanned his surroundings as the underground took off. The evil Layton thing… it was the reason all of this had been possible. Well, this and a lot of money. Clive had inherited a real fortune when Constance had died five years, three weeks and two day ago, passing everything she had possessed to him since she had never had an own family. Her husband had died early, before they had had the chance to have children and Constance had never married again. He smiled at the thought of the old lady. Clive had visited her grave on her last obit, one of the rare occasions when he was leaving for the real London. He couldn’t afford to leave the “London of the future” for a longer time or more often, not at the moment, unfortunately. And Dimitri…

Clive looked up the Towering Pagoda after the underground had arrived near the Belltower Gate. Claire didn’t know about all of this. She knew about the money Clive had inherited but not about the money Dimitri was getting from Bill on regular basis. She did neither know about the blackmailing, nor did she know about the “evil Layton” of their “time”. Dimitri was doing everything to keep it a secret from her and had prohibited Clive and everyone else from telling her. When someone had to see “Layton”, Claire had to be brought out of the Towering Pagoda unobtrusively which was Clive’s job most of the time. He didn’t mind it anymore. Over the past months, he had formed a friendship with Claire. She understood him and his loss due to the failure of the time machine. She had promised him to save his parents once they were able to finish a working time machine. Well, one that wouldn’t explode. Clive had always supported her and worked with her… until yesterday.

He was angry. Really angry. And somehow tempted to tell Claire everything just to see how she would react and if she kept following her goals like she was following them now.

Dimitri and a lot of the Family-members had been in the real London just yesterday implement their plan. Dimitri had built a fake time machine to showcase it as a scientific breakthrough which would have guaranteed him the Nobel Prize in Physics if… if it hadn’t exploded once the Prime Minister would have served as a test subject. It had all been a huge drama just to kidnap Bill Hawks. As well as all the prestigious scientists that had been invited by “Dr. Stahngun”, Dimitri’s alter ego, to the exhibition of the “time machine”. All the scientists had been told that they had traveled ten years to the future and that they would only be able to return once they had built a working time machine. Luckily, a fellow scientist of “Dr. Stahngun” who had once been a test subject as well and was trapped in the future for years now, had almost finished his time machine but it still had to be tested and he counted on every scientist’s help.

And, of course, everyone was helping.

Everyone except for Bill who was held captive in the Towering Pagoda. Clive reminisced about Claire’s empty gaze once she had laid her eyes on Bill after Dimitri and the others had brought him and the scientists down here. She hadn’t said a word, but she had been so determined to follow through with her plan that Clive hadn’t dared say anything. He could only shake his head at this thought.

He greeted Ward with a short nod as he let him pass through the Belltower Gate, as well as Shmarton and Shmelmey who had been patrolling right in front of the Towering Pagoda’s gates. 

Claire approached him with a smile once he had entered the office on top of the Towering Pagoda. She was standing in front of the glass wall, looking down onto the city. Clive didn’t bother to answer her smile with one of his own. She knew that he was everything but happy about what she and Dimitri had done even though he knew it had been necessary. This hadn’t been his and Dimitri’s initial plan. But, of course, Claire had never gotten to know about the initial plan. Dimitri had made sure of that.

“Hello Clive”, she said as she came up to him. He pulled the little package out of his bag and handed it to Claire. “Shipley gave this to me. It’s the answer to your letter.”

He was surprised as he saw how Claire’s eyes lit up like a firework the nightly sky. She carefully unwrapped the package’s content and although curiosity almost tore Clive apart, he resisted asking her. But he could see that it was a picture frame. She looked at the photography it contained for a few seconds, a tender smile gracing her lips, before she placed it on the desk. “Thank you”, she told him, the smile still present as if she was caught in a memory, which made Clive frown. What could the picture show that it made her this thrilled?

“Clive, I know that you are not happy with how things turned out”, she started deliberately as if she was trying to desperately find the right words once she’d come back to him. He had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed how her state had shifted. “Oh really? How can you tell?”, he answered sarcastically and crossed his arms in front of his chest, waiting for her response. “Clive, I’m serious. I know the way wasn’t the best we could possibly choose, but we need their help. We can’t risk failing the time machine again.” Claire was desperate, Clive could see it in her eyes as clearly as someone could see that grass was green and the sky blue. She was desperate to live, to have back the live Bill had stolen from her. Just like him.  

He could understand her. For which he hated himself. It was wrong, so wrong, that they had kidnapped all those people. Those people who had a family at home, parents, wives and husbands, sisters and brothers, own children. But he wasn’t any better. He might have not agreed with them, but he also hadn’t said a lot against it. He had only confronted Dimitri with their initial plan, but Dimitri had silenced him so quickly that he had barely been able to blink. And then, he had kept his mouth shut. How much he hated himself for that.

Clive looked down into her eyes. She was a bit smaller than him, not much, but enough that she was forced to look up when they were standing close to each other. Before Clive could think about an answer, someone knocked against the door. A second later, one of the members of the Family entered the room but stayed close to the door. “Ms. Folley, Mr. Allen needs you. He discovered a little problem in the basement of the Towering Pagoda.”

Clive immediately knew that there was a problem with Bill Hawks.

Claire nodded. “Tell him, I’ll be there soon, please.”

But the man shook his head. “No, he wanted me to bring you to him. _Now_.”

She frowned and exhaled slowly. Turning to Clive, she said, “Clive, I’m sure it won’t take long. Would you mind waiting here? As long as you don’t have any more important matters to attend to, of course.”

Clive shook his head. “I don’t. I will wait here. You don’t mind if I make myself a cup of tea?”

She smiled. “Not a bit. You know where everything is. I’ll be right back.”

Clive waited until she and the man had left the office before he made his way to the water kettle. During the last weeks, Clive had discovered that he and Claire had a similar taste in tea, which had made him take to Claire a lot more, something Dimitri strongly disliked. And he knew exactly why.

Clive was wondering how Claire could not have noticed that Dimitri was head over heels for her. He was so obvious, doing everything she wanted, treated her like a rare artefact and she… she considered him a simple friend. Well, her best friend. She had told him on one of their “walks” as he had asked her how long she and Dimitri already knew each other. Claire had told him about them being colleagues and studying together and that she “had never had a better friend than Dimitri”. Clive had had to suppress a laugh. She didn’t have a clue about Dimitri’s feelings towards her. She didn’t even consider him being anything more that a friend because of the Professor. And only then Clive had understood why it was so important to Dimitri to keep the evil Layton thing a secret. He feared Claire would turn away from him and go back to her _beloved Professor_ once they had finished the time machine, maybe even before they had finished it. He hoped Claire would forget about Layton when no one mentioned him and start to develop feelings for him, feelings which were equal to his.

While thinking about this, Clive had to suppress his laugh again, but he failed. Dimitri was a fool when it came to Claire. There was no way he wouldn’t do everything she said.

When the water kettle made itself felt, Clive decided for some herbal tea. He placed the mug on the edge of the desk, finally put down his bag next to the chair he let himself fall on. Upon taking the first sip, his gaze fell onto the picture frame the package had contained earlier and the curiosity made itself felt again. He hesitated as he placed the mug back on the desk.

He shouldn’t.

But he really wanted to.

Clive gave short shift, rounded the desk and picked up the picture frame.

The memories hit him like a car with 100 miles per hour.

The Professor with the top-hat, Hershel Layton himself, was smiling at Clive, waving at him with one hand. Never would he forget the faithful day when he had saved Clive, a little boy, thirteen years old back then, from experiencing the same fate as his parents had just had seconds ago.

Clive could still remember this moments as if it had just happened yesterday…

He and his parents had wanted to leave the flat as usual for their daily walk. Clive had always loved their trips to the great park nearby and had bounced with joy when it had come to leaving. He had always loved to be out in the nature. That day, he had decided to leave the flat a bit earlier because he hadn’t been able to sit still all day. His father had laughed because of his son’s impatience and told him to already leave, they would meet him at the park. Clive had smiled and left the flat laughing, running around the streets. In the end, he had come to a stop a few streets away from his home where a girl, a bit younger than him, had played with her dog. She had asked him if he wanted to join them and he had happily agreed. Clive had wished for a little puppy himself back then, but his parents had always refused to get him one. Constance had had a dog, an old crossbreed she had picked up from the street on a rainy day before he could starve to death. Clive had always loved the dog that had passed away only a few weeks after Constance.

Clive and the girl, whose name he had never gotten to know, had played with her dog until the devastating explosion had rocked the entire neighbourhood. He had looked up and started to run. To this day he didn’t know how, but he had known back then that something had happened to his home.

The smoke had forced tears to build and the heat of the fire had scared Clive. It had been raining ash as he had shouted for his parents, had tried to drown out the noise and all the other people’s voices. He had run along the street, looked into every face to find his parents until someone had pulled him away. Tears had already streamed down his face, he had cried without even recognizing it. He still remembered the feeling of hope when someone had pulled him with them because he had thought it was his father. But it had been the Professor.

Clive hadn’t noticed that he had made his way towards his burning home to look for his parents. _“I need to go back! My parents are still inside!”_ , he had cried and tried to make his ways past the man with the top-hat. He hadn’t let him. Clive’s hand darted to his cheek as he still felt the hard slap and the Professor’s harsh words which he would probably never be able to forget. _“Pull yourself together, boy! There’s nothing to be done! Jump back in there and you’ll die, too!”_ Clive had still cried and tried to make it past the Professor sobbing, but he had stopped him. Only today, Clive realized that he had saved his life. And only today he knew, that the Professor had lost someone loved to him as well. Just like Clive, he had never gotten the chance to say goodbye.

To that day, he was thankful that the Professor had saved him from experiencing the same fate as his parents.

With his hand still lying on his cheek, Clive could feel a single tear that had made its way over his skin. Hastily, he brushed it away and took a deep breath, trying to get rid of the memory. There was no time to pity himself. He had to concentrate on his task. Only then, everything would work, and they would hopefully be able to build another working time machine.

Only then, he would get to see his parents again.

Clive looked at the photography again, more carefully this time, that the memory wouldn’t run him over again. The photo wasn’t old, Clive could remember it being in a newspaper not so long ago. A few months maybe. It showed the Professor and the little boy who was always with him, both smiling at the camera and waving at the beholder of the photo. Clive didn’t know a lot about the boy, some said he was the Professor’s son, his nephew, his adopted child, but no one knew it for sure. At least no one Clive knew. His name… hasn’t it been Luke? Dimitri might have said it a few times… no, Claire. Claire had said it. She had told him about this Luke. But Clive couldn’t remember who he was to the Professor even though he was sure Claire had mentioned that, too.

But something bothered him when he looked at the photo. It wasn’t the memory about the last time Clive and the Professor had met that faithful day ten year ago. It was something else.

When he heard steps and voices approaching the door, he took one last glance at the photography, before he put the picture frame back onto the desk and returned to his previous seat. It still took a few more seconds for Claire to enter the room, Dimitri following her this time. Both of them looked a bit… gloomy? Well, Claire at least. Dimitri was more… gloomily happy? Clive who could actually read everyone like an open book was confused. As he was examined Dimitri pensively, Dimitri turned his gaze towards Clive and eyed him as well. Since their argument yesterday, Dimitri kept his eyes glued on the younger one. Probably because he was scared Clive would eventually tell Claire about their initial plan which contained asking Layton for his help by explaining him the situation with the evil Layton and the changes with Claire being here now. His enormous intelligence would have helped finishing the time machine successfully for sure. But since Claire was here, Dimitri refused to even talk about Layton at all.

Due to obvious reasons.

“Clive, I’m sorry, it took a bit longer”, Claire apologized to him. To be honest, Clive had no idea about how much time had passed when he had been trapped inside of his memories. He hadn’t checked the clock when he had arrived. Now, it was early evening, close to 6 a.m. “It’s alright, I enjoyed my cup of tea and the view”, he answered, keeping his real actions a secret.

“But your cup is still filled to the brim”, Claire wondered, frowning. Clive could literally feel how Dimitri was watching him. His gaze seemed to burn itself into Clive’s skin, but he was good enough of a liar to let himself get worked up by that. “I made myself another one. What else did you want to tell me?”, he changed the topic quickly and sensed Dimitri relaxing as he handed over to Claire.

“I wanted to talk to you again about yesterday. I know that it wasn’t the right way to do things, but we need every help we can possibly get. Please, understand this.” Clive shook his head. _This_ hadn’t been necessary. Not this way. He wondered why she wasn’t thinking about Layton. He was sure she had told him since they had been in a relationship back before the calamity had happened. And especially she must know how intelligent he was, she had been his _girlfriend_ after all. “There would have been another way, Claire. We just would have had to search for another one.”

“We already talked about that, there hadn’t been any other way, Clive”, Dimitri interposed. Clive stood up and turned towards him. “We are pressed for time and cannot afford to wait any longer than absolutely necessary”, Dimitri uttered, his eyes being glued to the younger man. Clive frowned. There had been a plan that wouldn’t have required a lot more time but…

“You mentioned another plan you and Dimitri had before, Clive. What was it about? Dimitri never got to tell me”, Claire suddenly said interested. Clive felt how Dimitri tensed up behind him and had to suppress a smirk. “It was…”

“It wasn’t a very good plan. Would have needed way too much time. Time we can’t afford right now” Dimitri suddenly interrupted him, taking a step forward. “What does it matter, anyway? It’s already done, and we can’t change the past… not yet at least.”

Claire thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “You are right. Clive, I just hope we can get along like we did the past two months. I don’t want this to stand between us.”

Clive sighed. “Of course, I understand.” Suddenly, his head started to ache. And he really longed for a cup of tea since he hadn’t touched his since he had brewed it. He wanted to leave Chinatown as soon as possible and hoped to sit together with Cogg and Spring in their click shop to drink a cup of Springs’s special tea. “Time-Tea” she was calling it proudly. “Time Tea” and “Space Cookies”. Clive had smiled when she had served the “Space Cookies” the first time.

“I’ll be leaving now. We will meet again soon, Claire. Dimitri.”

Clive touched the brim of his head and left the office, but not without taking one last look at the room. More specifically, at the desk where the picture frame was still standing. Clive couldn’t get the image out of his head. Not because of the Professor. Because of the little boy.

What was bothering him so much?


	5. A Boy named Clive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boy had bothered him so much!  
> Clive narrowed his eyes to a slit as he grabbed the photography before he hurried to the coat rack, the picture frame in his firm grip, and took the hat. Looked at it, then at the photography.  
> His younger self.  
> The hat.  
> The boy.  
> ...  
> God, he really had to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another month went by...  
> I'm deeply sorry for the late update again! It was just a really stressful time for me due to my last period of exams before the graduation exams next month. I probably won't be able to update until May or June due to that but I will do my very best!  
> I hope you celebrated a wonderful Easter with your family! :) 
> 
> \- Melinaa

17th of November 1974 

*

The artificial light made it appear like the sun was setting, bathing the streets in a soft orange light. It had taken Clive and Dimitri a long time to figure out how to make the sunset and sunrise as believable as possible and they had done a good job. Someone who didn’t know that this London was just a copy beneath the ground wouldn’t be able to differentiate them from the real sunsets and sunrises, except that you could never see the sun, it was always hidden behind a curtain of clouds. Something very common in London, where it was almost always cloudy and raining.

But today, Clive hadn’t been able to pay any attention to it. He was pacing back and forth in his apartment since he had come home an hour ago. After he had left the Towering Pagoda, he had paid a visit to Spring and Cogg who had been incredibly glad to see him, especially Spring. She had immediately served some tea, deliberately ignoring Clive’s assurances that it really wasn’t necessary, he wouldn’t be staying that long. Well, he had stayed over an hour in the end, much longer than he had intended to do. But, to be honest, after the encounter with Dimitri and Claire and yesterday’s events, he had needed the commonplace of a family as well as Spring’s Time Tea and the Space Cookies. Clive smiled at the thought. He didn’t know why she had called them like that, but he didn’t complain. It had always given him a sense of cosiness, something he was incredibly glad to have after a day like this one.

It was exhausting to be around Dimitri and Claire. Dimitri was just out of his mind and since Claire was living with him (you could really already call it like that… once, he had interrupted them while breakfast. Breakfast. At 11.30 a.m. Clive had never seen something more unsettling. Especially because Claire didn’t seem to get that Dimitri was head over heels for her...) he was a lovestruck idiot out of his mind. And Claire wasn’t any better than him. Not lovestruck but out of her mind.

Clive was pacing back and forth in the living room of his apartment. He had never seen Claire as someone with similar interests to Dimitri’s. He had always seen Claire as the cool head, the person who could knock Dimitri out of the sky when he aimed too high. But after yesterday… Clive had seen the expression in her eyes. The revenge she wanted. She revenge she would eventually get, now, that they had kidnapped those scientist and Bill Hawks. The desperation that had caused her to do all of this. The desperation that had turned her into someone she probably wasn’t.

Clive had seen it in her eyes. And had realized that he was met with the same sight when he was looking into a mirror. The despair, the anger, the sadness about his parents’ and Constance’s deaths had turned him into someone who was living for finally taking his revenge. After that, there would be nothing left of him.

He hadn’t seen it as revenge… he had called it justice. Justice over those single-minded scientists and corrupt, mercenary politicians who were guilty of his parents’ deaths. He had wanted to take his rev… his justice, had been determined to take it. But… he shook his head. There was no way to sugar-coat what he had wanted to do. It was revenge, had always been, he realized looking back at it now. The determination that had controlled him was the same he was seeing when he was looking into Claire’s eyes. And she wanted revenge.

What had he been thinking? He had planned. Planned to destroy what those politicians and scientists loved as much as he loved his parents.

 _London_.

Their beautiful London. He had dreamed about it, had pictured it in his head over and over during the darkest hours of the night. How he would slowly and appreciatively destroy every single building of London. There would have been nothing left afterwards.

Clive teared his hair. What had he been thinking? This was… he gulped. _Madness_. Complete and utter madness. He had known it long before yesterday but had just realized it. He didn’t know how he could have turned into such a… monster. He inhaled deeply. His parents had always taught him to be forgiving. Honest and forgiving. Constance had always been proud of him for those characteristics. And now? He had turned into a liar, someone who liked to manipulate people, someone who was seeking revenge and calling it justice. This complete madness couldn’t be justice…

It had seemed so logical. They had taken something from him and he was taking something from them. Right?

No.

NO!

It wasn’t right. Clive gritted his teeth. He had been willing to hurt so many innocent people. Like _those_ people had done. And he didn’t want to be like them. He had been willing to punish so many for the mistakes of so few. Innocent people. Children who had their entire lives ahead of them.

He only wanted his parents back. Wanted to save them from their fate. Dimitri and Claire had promised him that this would be possible. Once they had finished the time machine. Once they had taken their revenge. Once…

He had to stop this madness. This madness Dimitri and Claire were so sure about that it was the right thing to do. But how? It wasn’t like he was any better than them. He had watched as the people had been abducted. Had torn them away from their families, friends, had made them believe that they had always been living here, not caring about the people he had left behind. He had watched as Dimitri and the Family had abducted the scientist yesterday. He hadn’t done anything as they had kidnapped the _goddamn Prime Minister_! They had blackmailed members of the government. He had stopped listening to what his parents and Constance had taught him.

How could he ever make up for that?

He had to stop all of this. But… he couldn’t do it alone. He had to call for help. The photography on Claire’s desk crossed Clive’s mind. The Professor? God, no. Dimitri would realize immediately what Clive was up to. He wasn’t that stupid. It would never work… would it? The initial plan had been that they would get the Professor to work with them in order to save Claire. Dimitri had been sure that he would do so. But now, that Claire was here, he didn’t want to have Layton around.

Clive was thinking. Claire didn’t have to know about this. London was huge, the possibility that their paths would cross was so little… would that be enough to convince Dimitri? Probably not. But… Clive wouldn’t have to tell him, would he? Once Layton would be down here, Dimitri wouldn’t be able to throw him out without Layton getting to know a lot. Not everything, but enough that he would call the police. Clive only had to bring Layton down here… but how? Explaining him everything? God, he probably wouldn’t believe him. He would think that Clive must be lunatic. And he wasn’t sure if the Professor would even help him. What if he wanted to save Claire as well and would pair up with Dimitri? It would be in vain then.

He had to drop that idea. But what could he do? He walked over to the window. The sun had set completely by now, and the sky was pitch black. Some little artificial lights were representing the stars, a bigger one the moon. The crescent was shining purely white. In a week, the sky would be pitch black in the night of the new moon. Clive hated those nights when he couldn’t see anything during the night. He leaned onto the shelve in front of the window. He had placed two picture frames on it, one with him and his parents where he was about ten or eleven, the other one showed Constance, Spring, Cogg and his fifteen-year-old self. One of the few personal things he had brought down here.

One of the few personal things he possessed at all.

Clive teared his hair and groaned. He couldn’t bring anyone down here to help him without Dimitri getting to know immediately. He crossed the room. He needed another cup of tea, he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. He had never been someone to drink coffee. He had tried it but had never come around to actually like the bitter taste of it like Dimitri. Who had started to drink tea again just recently. Black Tea. It was a wonder he wasn’t drinking Earl Grey like Claire. Clive smirked. Dimitri was so easy to be sussed, almost too easy. Clive brewed his tea, herbal tea, and made himself comfortable on his couch. The moon’s white light shining into the room was suppressed by the warm light of the little bedside lamp next to the couch. He liked the little light better than the ceiling light since its light was too bright when it was dark outside. The tea was still too hot for Clive to drink it, so he made his way around his flat. Placed his shoes accurately on the allocated space. Hung his bag and jacket onto the coat rack.

He wanted to do the same with his brown hat but once he was holding it, he hesitated. He turned it around, looked at it closely but couldn’t figure out why looking at it made him uncomfortable.

 _Get a grip, Clive_ , he told himself. _It’s just your thoughts running wild again._

He nodded, placed the hat next to his jacket and made his way back to the couch since his flat was entirely cleaned up (unlike Dimitri, he was a very neat person). Once, he had come to think that he might have a slight compulsive orderliness. Clive shook his head as he sat down. He was just tidy. But the thought left a sour taste. Clive grimaced as he took the first sip and a little drop trickled onto the couch.

 _Compulsive orderliness_ , his mind was mocking him.

Suddenly, the tea tasted bitter. Clive decided that it was time for him to go to bed. His mind was running wild and making decisions in this state of mind probably wasn’t a good idea. He poured away the tea and cleaned the mug before he changed into some comfortable clothes. It was close to midnight as he finally got into bed, but his mind wasn’t even thinking of sleeping. Too much had happened today that he could just go to sleep. Clive gritted his teeth. He knew that he needed to sleep. Or at least relax. He starred at the wall, forcing his eyes shut but his thoughts just seemed to go even crazier. He groaned and turned around, letting his gaze wander through the room. The moon’s light lightened the picture frames on the shelve. He tried to think of happier times, times when he had been the child that loved to go for a walk with its parents, the child that liked to feed the ducks in the park. He still remembered how he had once leaned over too far to feed a lonely duck when his hat had fallen into the water. He had tried to grab it but ended up also falling into the water. The ducks had flown away terrified and his parents had laughed before his father had pulled him out of the pond, laughing, and said, “Dear, it looks like our son wants to be a duck.” Clive had laughed as well but protested when they had wanted to leave. His favourite hat had still been swimming on the water. Clive smiled as he remembered how his father had gotten it and placed the wet hat on Clive’s wet hair.

It was one of his favourite memories.

He had worn this hat on the day of the explosion. He had kept it for a long time but on one 2nd anniversary of his parents’ deaths, he had thrown it into the Thames. After he and Constance had left the cemetery, he had walked around London for countless hours. The Big Ben had struck two a.m. when Clive had found himself on the Westminster Bridge. He still wasn’t sure what had caused him to do this but due to a sudden burst of sadness and anger, he had thrown his hat into the Thames. He had leaned over the railing but hadn’t been able to see it. Then he had sat down, his back leaning against the bridge’s railing, until he had been able to watch the most beautiful sunrise he had ever seen. No clouds, no rain. Just the sun and its yellow light. Only then he had been able to get up and home where an extremely worried Constance had already waited for him. She hadn’t said anything but urged him on to drink some tea before she had sent him to bed.

These nights belonged to his least favourite memories.

He ran a hand through his hair as he sat up. He wouldn’t be able to sleep. He walked over to the picture frames and looked at his younger self and his parents. “Mom, Dad…”, he whispered, “Please tell me what I should do. How did I get into all of this? I only want you back….” They smiled at him, his younger self even grinning. The hat firmly on the kid’s head. The father’s arm around the kid’s shoulders.

Another image crossed Clive’s mind.

The photography on Claire’s desk. The professor’s arm around the boy’s shoulders. The boy’s smirk. And… _and the hat firmly on the kid’s head._

_The hat!_

_The boy had bothered him so much!_

Clive narrowed his eyes to a slit as he grabbed the photography before he hurried to the coat rack, the picture frame in his firm grip, and took the hat. Looked at it, then at the photography.

_His younger self._

_The hat._

_The boy._

Clive don the hat and looked at himself in the mirror. Besides the circumstance that he really needed to sleep, he saw what had bothered him so much. He looked at his younger self, then back into the mirror.

_He could comfortably be an older version of the boy._

God, he really had to sleep.

 

18th of November 1974 

*

Clive hadn’t slept a lot, but he was as energetic as he hadn’t been in a long time. He had a lot to do today if he wanted his plan to work.

It was simple. Well, that was what Clive told himself. But he had to believe it.

After some hours of sleep, he had thought about what had come to his mind the night before. And the thought didn’t seem absurd in the daylight. He could comfortably be an older version of Luke, he would just have to dress similarly to him and pick up some of his behaviour patterns and his way to talk. Which shouldn’t be a problem. Clive had always been well-spoken, and it would only take him a few days to pick up little Luke’s behaviour. Luke was only a child after all, how hard could that be? Clive would have to spend the days in the real London which meant Dimitri would realize sooner or later that Clive was missing. He would be able to explain to Dimitri why he would be away for one day, but several days? He just hoped Dimitri would have to do enough things to forget Clive’s absence. He had only eyes for Claire, anyways.

Clive was perfectly aware of how crazy his plan must be but then again, this entire project was crazy. And the craziest things might work the best (again, look at their entire project).

It was a cloudy day, as usual. Clive wondered. Would he see the sun in London? He hadn’t seen the real sun for weeks, even moths. So much had to be done during the past months, he hadn’t had the time for pay the real London a visit. What a luck that no one could miss him. He didn’t have any close friends, and Spring and Cogg, who would have been the only ones to worry about, were down here with him.

Clive left his apartment building and walked to the clock shop. He accelerated his steps. He could barely await it to breath fresh air, feel real rain, real sun on his skin. But suddenly, as he rounded a corner, he bumped into someone. Someone he had barely ever seen around here.

Dimitri.

What the hell was he doing here?

Clive became anxious. Did Dimitri already know about his plan? But how? Had he installed cameras in Clive’s flat? Did he have someone monitoring Clive? Just the thought of it made him shiver.

“Dimitri. I didn’t expect to see you here”, Clive said, his voice not giving away how nervous he was. He had never had any problems with covering up his real feelings. Thank god.

Dimitri adjusted his head before he answered him. “I came to speak to you in private, Clive. What are you already doing out here?”

“I’m always up this early. I wanted to pay a visit to Spring and Cogg. What did you want to talk about?” Clive’s tension subsided. Dimitri didn’t have a clue about his plan yet. “About yesterday. I thought we talked about our plan. What do you think must it look like to Claire if we are still disagreeing, Clive? We are a team and I expect you to agree with me!” His voice grew louder. He quickly looked around, but no one was paying attention to the strange pair. “Agree with you? We didn’t agree on this plan, Dimitri. You decided you didn’t want Layton down here.”

“And I told you I wouldn’t take a No for an answer. Do you even realize-”

“Yes, I do realize! I realize that you are in love with her! God, Claire this, Claire that. Do _you_ even realize what this has turned you into? You don’t fulfil your part of the team quite well, Dimitri.” Clive gritted his teeth. Ah, how good it felt to finally say this!

Dimitri was boiling with rage. “I want to save her! To save her from what Bill has done to her! I want to save her, and you want to save your parents. I fulfil my part of the time perfectly unlike you, Clive!” He came closer. “And mine and Claire’s relationship does _not_ concern you. If I didn’t know it better, I would say that you are up to something. What has changed your mind, Clive?”

Clive didn’t answer. He was thinking. “So silent, Clive? Did I strike a chord? Did I-”

“I’m sorry.”

“Excuse me?” The sudden change of Clive’s behaviour confused him. “I’m sorry”, Clive repeated. “I shouldn’t have said that. Of course, we are still on the same side. I just didn’t realize how deep your feelings for Claire really are. I never came to think that they were as strong as my feelings.”

Dimitri frowned.

“My feelings for my parents, of course”, he assured him Dimitri exhaled, relieved, and Clive was smirking inside. He had just realized how much easier it would be to manipulate Dimitri than to cheat him with logical arguments. He only had to bring up Claire and Dimitri would believe everything he said. He should be alarmed how much fun it was to manipulate people but right now, he did his best not to smirk. He urged Dimitri subconsciously to walk along with him and he immediately fell for it.

 _Idiot_.

“I understand you, Dimitri. I’m not happy how it went, but I understand why you did it. You did it to help Claire. I would have done the same if it would have helped my parents”, he assured the scientist, waiting for his reaction. Dimitri nodded. “I agree, it could have gone better. But I’m glad that you understand in how much of a hurry we are.”

Clive nodded but rolled his eyes inside. _What an…_ “We should talk about all of this. Why don’t you join me for a cup of tea? Spring’s tea is excellent.”

Dimitri halted. “Actually… why don’t we talk about it tonight?”, he offered. Clive brooded on it. What should he tell him? He wouldn’t be back tonight for sure… he decided to go for the truth. “I won’t be here tonight.”

“Where will you be?”, Dimitri asked suspiciously. _One false step and you can forget your plan_ , Clive thought. He picked his words carefully. “I wanted to pay London a visit. I am curious to see how they are doing without their Prime Minister.” He looked around. “I mean, look at our London. Everything is going on so well, without trouble and we don’t have a Prime Minister.”

 _We have a false Layton ruling with an iron fist_ , he thought bitterly but didn’t say it.

“It would be quite a show to see how London is doing without their dear Bill Hawks.”

Dimitri watched him for a few seconds before he suddenly started to laugh. To really laugh. Clive raised his eyebrows but decided that it was the best to not say anything. He had to wait some minutes until Dimitri’s laugh finally had subsided. He didn’t doubt Clive’s intentions anymore.

“You do that”, he smirked. “As much as I would like to accompany you, Claire is waiting for me. I promised her not to be away too long.”

Clive nodded. _Lovestruck idiot_. “Alright. Why don’t we defer our talk to later? I’m sure we’ll meet at some point in the Towering Pagoda.” Dimitri nodded, they bid their farewells and Clive watched as he disappeared. Finally.

God, that had been exhausting. But Dimitri wasn’t suspicious at all.

Clive smirked.

 

22th of November 1974 

 *

The past week had been exhausting. Clive wasn’t used to walking around the city a lot anymore since most of his time was spent standing in a laboratory or sitting behind a desk. And the Professor and Luke were walking around a lot, even when they were at the university. He had followed the two of them almost everywhere, picking up on Luke’s manners and language. Clive wasn’t sure but… the boy seemed to be able to talk to animals? He was talking to them a lot at least. What a weird kid.

Clive had informed himself about the Professor and Luke and had soon felt like a stalker, a feeling he didn’t like a lot. And he had finally gotten to know who that Emmy was Dimitri and Claire had mentioned with a bitter aftertaste once or twice. The Professor’s assistant before Luke (if you could call the boy a real assistant) but until after they had revealed the Azran Legacy. Clive wasn’t interested in archaeology yet he had read all the articles (despite their extremely bad writing style). Emmy and the Professor had parted ways afterwards due to unknown reasons. Clive would die to know why they had parted ways. He sensed that there must be more.

A few weeks later, the Professor had adopted a girl, sixteen years by now, called Flora. Flora Reinhold-Layton. A pretty girl. Clive had also read everything about their adventure with the Elysian Box. He had nodded appreciatively. Not bad, not bad. Little Luke was seeing a lot of the world.

It wouldn’t be a problem for Clive to masquerade as Luke. He had shopped for some blue clothes, as well as a blue hat, and realized that he liked wearing blue. It has never been his favourite colour, but he could live with it. Next, he had started to prepare the “future” for their arrival.

The Professor wouldn’t believe it if he was just told “Welcome to the future”. He would want proof. And Clive could show him the proof. He had thought about it long and hard but had found the best way. He had searched for the Professor’s “old friend”, a man called Don Paolo who had disturbed him and Luke on their previous adventures quite some times due to unknown reasons. A nice sum of money and a letter with instructions later he had agreed on taking part in Clive’s plan.

He smirked as he sat at his desk thinking of the past week. It had been so easy. And Dimitri hadn’t noticed a thing. Now, there was only one thing left: Layton. And he would surely come to help his apprentice if he called for help, right?

What Clive had eventually caused to go this way was his own curiosity. Would he be able to trick the famous Professor Layton, one of London’s most intelligent citizens, into thinking that this was the London of the future? That this letter was real? He was excited to find out. Clive finished the letter Shipley would bring to the Professor soon. He had prepared some more. He was excited to see if they would take the bait. He emptied his cup of tea, leaving behind the letter on the desk contently. He was ready.

 

 _Professor, I hope this letter finds you well. As for me, I am in quite a predicament._  
_You see, the London we know and love has been thrown into absolute chaos. To complicate matters, the calamity I speak of does not take place in your time._  
_This may be difficult to believe but I am writing to you from ten years in the future. I know, this is a lot to take in, but I’ll explain it all soon. For now, I ask you to head to the clock shop on Midland Road in Baldwin._

_I look forward to seeing you again._

_Your student, Luke Triton_


	6. A Letter from the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Professor raised an eyebrow and looked at Luke after he had finished reading the mysterious letter. “Are you trying to play a little trick on me, my boy?”, he asked with a smile. Luke frowned. “A trick? Professor, I wouldn’t even dream of it! What is written in the letter?”   
> “Luke, be honest. It’s quite a funny idea, I must admit”, the Professor chuckled and placed the letter on the desk. Luke snapped it away to read it himself.   
> When he was done, he lowered it slowly. That couldn’t be true! “But… but Professor, I swear, I didn’t write this! I would never do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!   
> And another month... actually, I didn't intend to write this since finals are not over yet but I have my English exam on Monday, so... this can be considered practice, can't it? :D   
> Anyway, it's done and I dedicate this chapter to my dear friend elementalram since they always listen to me when I ramble about my fic! Thanks so much! I hope you all like it :)

22th of November 1974

*

“Luke, my boy, would you help me here?”

Luke, who had been leaning against the windowsill and been talking to a little blue bird, turned around and hurried over to the Professor standing behind the teacher’s desk. “Of course, Professor! What’s the matter?”

They were still at the university and the Professor was just preparing his last lecture for today. Some of the students were already here, but most of them were yet about to arrive. It was almost ten more minutes until the lecture officially began. “Have you seen the fossils we took with us this morning? I can’t find them…” He looked around again as if the fossils would suddenly appear on the teacher’s desk.

“Oh, we left them in the car this morning! You said that you wanted to get them during the lunch break”, Luke answered, thinking of this morning when he and Flora had asked the Professor whether they should help him carry his things inside since the Professor had already been packed full of the papers and books he would need for the day. He had declined their offer and bid them farewell, so Luke and Flora had made their way to school just a block of houses down the street.

“You’re right, my boy! I already forgot it… it seems like I’m growing old”, the Professor chuckled a bit at himself. “But Professor, you aren’t! I’ll get them for you!”

“Thank you, my boy”, the Professor handed him the car key with a smile and Luke took off. Some of the students greeted him. Quite a lot of them knew him since they had started studying and Gressenheller University and taking the Professor’s classes. Most of them were really nice and Luke liked talking to them. Especially to those who didn’t treat him like a child. He was thirteen, after all.

It was a nice day, not raining for once, a true miracle in London. The sun was about to set, making the buildings glow in a warm light, but the appearances were deceiving. It was a cold day, late in November, and Luke was glad he was wearing his warm, blue sweater.

The campus in front of the building was empty and not just because of the low temperature outside. Most of the students were already home since it was Friday, but some the Professor’s students had asked him for an extra lesson in the face of the upcoming exams in December. And the Professor, being a gentleman through and through, had agreed on it. _No Gentleman would ever refuse to help those who ask for it._

Luke wanted to unlock the car as something brushed his leg. He looked down to see a striped cat rubbing its head against Luke’s ankle. He smiled. “Oh, hello little one!”

“Miaow!”

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Merlin! My name’s Luke!”

He had a little chat with the cat until he remembered why exactly he was here. “Oh, would you move aside? I have to open the car to get some things!”

The cat disappeared and a moment later, she was sitting on the car roof, checking what Luke was getting from it. Even though it was quite cold, the metal of the Laytonmobile was still warm thanks to the sun. Luke put the box with the fossils on the ground next to him and closed the door, carefully not to catch the Merlin’s tail in it. He blinked at Luke and meowed.

“But I have to go. I’m sorry. But make yourself comfortable here!”, he said, ruffling the cat’s fur one last time before he picked up the box. But before he could go inside again, he heard someone calling his name.

Luke looked around but couldn’t see anyone who he might know.

“Luke! Ah, I finally found you!”, a short man dressed in black was addressing him. He came to a stop next to him and took a deep breath. Luke frowned and looked him over as he was trying to catch his breath. He was quite plump, wore a little, black top-head and a red bag around his shoulders. He was sure he had never seen this man before. Might he be a postman? But why did he know Luke’s name then?

“Uhm, I’m sorry, Sir, but who are you?”, he asked.

“Luke! Don’t tell me, you don’t know me! It’s me, Shipley!”, he called out indignantly. Luke flinched at the sudden outbreak. “Sorry, but I really don’t know you. And I have to go now, so…”

“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s my fault!”, the man interrupted him apologetically. Luke withstood the urge to flinch again. That man had quite some erratic mood swings. “Of course, you don’t know me. But please, stay one more second. I’ve got an important letter for Professor Layton.”

“For the Professor?” _Which letter did arrive at 4.30 in the afternoon?_

“Yes. Here. You’ll give it to him, won’t you? I, uhm… I just lay it in the box, okay?”

“Uhm, sure I will! But from where do you know my name?” Luke looked at the letter Shipley had placed in the box. No sender was written on the envelope, no adress. Only the Professor’s full name.

“The writer of this letter told me. I’m sorry if I scared you”, Shipley apologized and lifted his head, similar to the way the Professor usually did. “You didn’t scare me”, he clarified. “I was just wondering. Anyway, thank you, Shipley! But I really have to go now, the Professor is waiting for me.”

“Of course. Good bye, Luke!” Shipley took of and Luke and Merlin watched as he vanished in between the people on the street.

“Miaow, miaow!”

“I wasn’t scared!”, Luke replied and shook his head, feeling a bit offended, before he made his way back to the university. His hands were freezing by now since it was getting colder and colder and he was relieved once he was back in the warm building. His skin tingled a bit uncomfortably as it started to warm up.

The lecture’s hall was almost entirely filled by now as Luke was finally back. “Here, Professor”, he said as he placed the box with the fossils on the teacher’s desk. The Professor turned away from the blackboard towards him. “I’m sorry it took a bit longer, I had a little talk with a cat.”

The Professor smiled. “Don’t apologize for making a new friend, Luke. Oh, what is this?” The Professor took the letter, Shipley had given Luke, from the box. “Oh, a postman came by and gave it to me. I didn’t know that letters were still delivered this late.”

The Professor frowned as he looked over the letter before he placed it back in the box. “They usually aren’t. I’ll read it later.” Luke nodded and made his way to his usual seat somewhere in the back of the room. He was usually sitting there and listening to the Professor like his students or doing his homework. He could stay at the Professor’s flat as well, but when Luke wasn’t here to remind him to go home, he would probably just stay at his office for the entire weekend since Rosa was leaving earlier on Fridays.

Sometimes, he would go home anyway, especially since Flora was living with them even though she sometimes really annoyed him. Even though she was already living with them for a year, she still wasn’t utterly comfortable around the city or even staying alone at home in such a big city. Sometimes, she would come to the university with Luke and be in one of the Professor’s lectures or in another one. Just recently, she had discovered her love for art and had visited one or another lecture about it.

But today, Luke was alone. His homework was already done, Flora was staying with a friend as she did often, so he decided to listen to the lecture about how to determine a fossil’s age exactly. It was tied to math closely, a subject Luke had always liked and been good at. He took some notes in his brown notebook he had gotten from the Professor some time ago. It was already the third Luke was filling. Every one of them had been brown with the logo of the Gressenheller University imprinted on the cover.

The student, a guy with black hair, turned around and looked at him interested. “Do you really cope with that, kiddo?”

Luke gritted his teeth. He wasn’t a kid! “Of course, I do. How about you?”, he replied but didn’t get an answer in return since the guy just turned back to his notes with a quiet growl. Luke tried to supress a grin as he continued to listen to the Professor.

 

Luke packed the notebook into his bag as the lecture finished and the Professor had whished the students a wonderful weekend. He wished the students a great weekend as well, waiting for them to leave as someone leaned onto his desk. It was a girl with blonde hair and a nice smile. “So, you’re Luke?”, she asked. “Uhm… yes. And you are?”

She chuckled. “I’m Melanie. You’re in the same class as my sister Cynthia, aren’t you? She’s always talking about you and I just had to say something.”

Luke got a bit flustered and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uhm, yes. She’s sitting next to me in math. I help her sometimes”, he admitted. Melanie nodded. “I know. And she’s very thankful for that. Here, this is from her. She made me give it to you since she doesn’t have the courage to do so herself”, she blinked her eye at Luke folded piece of paper. “Have a nice weekend.”

“You and your family have a nice weekend as well”, he wished her before she disappeared. Luke opened the letter and turned bright red as he read what Cynthia had written on it before he hurried to stuff it into his bag and made his way to the teacher’s desk.

“Ms. Stone, I appreciate your engagement, but I can assure you that there is still enough time for you to finish your paper. And I believe in you that you can achieve this without my help”, the Professor smiled at the student that was standing in front of his desk. Luke watched her closely. The young woman, Rosetta, had a thing for staying behind and having hundreds of questions for the Professor. And by asking them she was obviously flirting with the Professor.

“Oh, but Professor L, I’d feel so much safer if I was with you… You know, it would really help me”, she said, winding a strand of her blonde hair around her finger and biting her lower lip. Luke shifted from one foot to another uncomfortably until the Professor finally noticed him.

“Ms. Stone, I’m absolutely sure you will be fine on your own. You’re a smart student after all. Luke thinks the same, don’t you, Luke?”

“Sure”, he murmured as Rosetta spun around. She hadn’t noticed the boy yet. She seemed a bit unnerved at his sight, to put it in a nice way. “If you say so, Professor L… Have a wonderful weekend.” Luke watched her leaving before he turned to the Professor. “How can you keep so still, Professor? I would be so embarrassed if I was in your place.”

“Why would I be embarrassed, my boy? She was just concerned about her papers as usual.”

He really didn’t get it.

No offense, Luke admired the Professor in every aspect, but when it came to those things, the Professor really wasn’t the quickest to catch on them. Luke briefly wondered if he had ever managed to get a girlfriend.

“Because she… never mind, Professor”, he sighed. Luke felt his gaze upon him as he rounded the desk to get his jacket, but the Professor then decided to let him get away. “Talking about embarrassment, why are you blushing? Is it about Melanie?”

So much to getting away. Luke shook his head. “I’m in a class with her sister and I… I got a little letter from her”, he admitted, blushing even harder at the confession. The Professor chuckled. Luke spun around.

“Hey! Are you laughing at me, Professor? That is not nice!”

“Me? Oh no, I’m not laughing at you, Luke. I wouldn’t even dream of it”, the Professor replied, not without the hint of a smile. Luke growled but didn’t reply anything as he helped the Professor packing his things. As he picked up the box, the fossils had been in, his gaze fell onto the letter Shipley had given him. “Professor, have you already read the letter?”, he asked, holding it out. The Professor took it and shook his head. “No, I haven’t.” He opened the letter as Luke was storing the fossils in the box but stopped. He wanted to know who the anonymous was and what they had written.

The Professor raised an eyebrow and looked at Luke after he had finished reading. “Are you trying to play a little trick on me, my boy?”, he asked with a smile. Luke frowned. “A trick? Professor, I wouldn’t even dream of it! What is written in the letter?”

“Luke, be honest. It’s quite a funny idea, I must admit”, the Professor chuckled and placed the letter on the desk. Luke snapped it away to read it himself.

When he was done, he lowered it slowly. That couldn’t be true! “But… but Professor, I swear, I didn’t write this! I would never do that.”

“May I remind you that you already once did so, my boy?”, the Professor blinked an eye at him, but Luke crossed his arms, frowning. “I had my reasons. But this, I would never do that! Professor, I didn’t write this! I really got it from someone!”, he defended himself. He would never do that!

“Tell me who this someone was”, the Professor demanded, and Luke started to talk. “It was a short man dressed in black. He had a little top-hat, a red bag, he was quite fat and…”

“Luke!”

“…he said his name was Shipley and the writer of this letter had told him my name because he had already known it. But I have never seen him before. He gave me the letter and then disappeared again. Really Professor, I’m not lying!”

“I wasn’t implying that you lied, Luke. I was simply asking you if you were playing a trick on me”, the Professor clarified but Luke wasn’t convinced yet. “I’m not! I just got this letter! After all, this isn’t even my handwriting!”

“Well, I believe you. But who might be playing a trick on us then?”, the Professor questioned. He took the letter from Luke and looked at it again. He didn’t know the handwriting, the elegantly curved letters with a slight right twist. Luke’s handwriting was different, so he couldn’t have written the letter. Who might have written it?

Each in their own thoughts, they packed the things, locked the lecture’s hall and after a quick stop at his office, the two made their way to the Laytonmobile. The cat Luke had talked about had already vanished. “I hope Merlin has a warm place to stay overnight”, he said concernedly as he handed the Professor the box. “I’m sure he has”, Hershel reassured him before both of them got into the car. “Was the cat’s name really Merlin?”

“Yep. Oh, we still have to pick up Flora. She’s staying at Sofia’s, they wanted to study together”, Luke reminded him as he started the car. “Alright. What do you think about eating dinner somewhere afterwards? Are you hungry?”

“I’m always hungry, Professor!”, Luke laughed but fell silent quite quickly. Hershel frowned. Luke would always chatter with him excitedly after a long day at the university. He wondered if there simply was nothing to tell but then again, Luke always had something to tell. “How was school today?”

“Good”, the boy answered brusquely, continuing to look out of the window. Was he still offended because he had asked if he was lying about the letter? Hershel didn’t know.

“Professor?”, he asked a bit later as they waited for the traffic light to turn green.

“Yes, my boy?”

“Do you think the letter could be… real?”

He blinked. “Do you?”

A quick glance at Luke told him that the boy frowned. “Well, it is highly unlikely but… but after last week’s event… don’t you think it could be possible?”

Hershel clutched at the steering wheel so hard his knuckles became visible. “No. Time travel isn’t possible, Luke”, he said rather harsh as he rounded a corner way too fast. Luke straightened himself and tilted his head. “You seem so sure about this, Professor. Don’t tell me that you are experienced in physics as well?”

“I don’t. But it isn’t possible”, he repeated as he stopped the car in front of the house of Flora’s friend. “Would you get Flora? I’ll be waiting here.”

“Yep!” Luke jumped out of the car, but Hershel called him back another time. “Luke! Please, don’t tell Flora about the letter. I don’t want her to worry.”

He nodded. “Of course, Professor. I was thinking the same.” He shut the door close and Hershel took a deep breath. Time travel wasn’t possible, and this letter was a broad joke. He ran a hand over his face. But who would do this to him? Someone who knew what had happened all those years ago? It must be. What did they want from him? He had stopped his investigations just as they had wanted. Why now? And why Luke? He didn’t want to draw him into this. Neither Flora. This had to be a cruel joke. Otherwise he would have never gotten this letter and Clai…

“Hello Professor! How was your day?”, Flora exclaimed happily as she practically tore open the door. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before she got in the car’s back and Luke took his previous seat on the passenger seat. The cold air had jolted Hershel up and he managed to smile at Flora. “I guess your day must have been extremely well.”

“Yes! I got an A in biology!”, she cheered. “Whoa, really? That’s so cool, Flora!”, Luke exclaimed, turning around to give her a high-five. Hershel smiled, forgetting his dark thoughts over the children’s laughter and happiness. “That’s great, Flora, I’m so proud of you.” He smiled at her brightly. “What do you think, we get some dinner? Luke is hungry, and I might have forgotten to go grocery shopping.”

“Luke is _always_ hungry, Professor”, Flora chuckled. “But that sounds great, I’m starving. Where are we going?”

“Oh, I know something! There is this little Italian restaurant near the Thames, they have the best Pizza in London! Can we go there, Professor?”

He smiled as her started the car. “Of course. Show me the way, my boy.”

He was able to supress his dark thoughts about the past while they were having dinner. But when the children had gone to sleep, and he was sitting on his bed, staring out of the window, thinking about what had been, could have been and would be if the letter indeed was real, the top-hat on his night stand a constant reminder.

 

 

23th November 1947

*

It had been a short night for Hershel. He had barely been able to sleep because of the letter and last week’s event. He and Luke had been invited to the exhibition of a time machine. Already then, all the alarm bells had sounded in his head. Why him? Why had he been invited? It couldn’t be possible. And the eventual failure of the time machine had encouraged his suspicion even more. Until yesterday. What if Luke was right? What if the letter was indeed real? What if Luke, just ten years older, had sent it to him, counting on his help? He had shaken his head. That couldn’t be possible, there was no way. The time machine had been a failure… These thoughts had been a doom loop.

Hershel had hurried to ready himself for the day after he had woken up at 9.30 a.m. after some hours of sleep. He wasn’t one to wake up so late.   
When he entered the kitchen, Luke was sitting at the table, a cup of hot chocolate in front of him, the letter in his hand. He was staring at it highly concentrated and barely recognized as the Professor had come in.

“Luke, what are you doing there?”, he asked, sitting down across from the boy. He looked up. “Good morning, Professor. I’m studying the letter. Don’t worry, Flora is taking a shower and I didn’t tell her. I was careful.”

“Good. Good…”, Hershel murmured. Luke looked at him and tilted his head. “Have you only just woken up? Is everything alright, Professor? You look tired”, he asked, clearly being worried.

Hershel’s suppressed a yawn. “Yes. I just couldn’t sleep quite well last night”, he admitted.

“The letter?”, Luke asked and nodded as the Professor confirmed his assumption. “The handwriting looks a bit like mine, don’t you think? I have this right twist as well.”

Hershel took the letter and studied the handwriting. “I don’t think so. A lot of people have a right twist”, he said calmingly. Luke nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced. The two sat there, Luke sipping his hot chocolate and Hershel staring at the letter. He only stored it away when he heard Flora coming down the hall.

“Professor, you’re finally awake! Luke and I were already wondering. Didn’t you sleep well?”, she asked concerned, one hand clutching at her chest, as she laid the other onto Hershel’s shoulder. He patted it lightly. “I’m alright, my dear. I just didn’t get enough sleep. Did you two already have breakfast?”

Flora shook her head. “No, only tea and hot chocolate. We wanted to wait for you.”

Hershel smiled at this. The three prepared the breakfast and ate together. They might not spend a lot of time together because of their different schedules, but they always had breakfast together before any of them left the house. “Flora, what are your plans for the day?”

“Mh”, she made holding up a finger as she was still chewing on her food before she answered. “Sofia, Henry and I wanted to study math together today. And I was thinking about staying the night at Sofia’s if that is alright with you. She has already asked me so many times.”

“That sounds wonderful. But who is Henry? I have never heard of him before”, Hershel asked worriedly. Luke smirked. “I bet he is Flora’s crush and she just doesn’t want to tell us”, he chuckled before he took a bite of his bread.

Flora rolled her eyes. “He isn’t, Luke!”, she responded sternly before she turned to her adoptive father. “Henry is a guy from my class. He’s pretty good at math and offered to help us.” And then she added, in Luke’s direction: “I think he likes Sofia, that’s why he is studying with us. And Sofia told me I would have to be there, too. I guess she likes him, too, but is too nervous to be alone with him.” She shrugged.

Luke chuckled again, and Hershel smiled a bit overchallenged. Children and their problems. But then again, he remembered that it had been the same when he had been young. First a friend back in Stansbury and then Clai-

“What are your plans for today?”, Flora asked, interrupting the Professor’s thoughts.

“I don’t know it yet”, Luke answered. “Professor?”

“I’ll have to go to the university, handing in some of my student’s papers. I don’t know how long this will take. Shall I drive you over to Sofia’s, Flora?”

Flora looked like she wanted to accept the offer but then shook her head. “No. I’ll take the bus”, she smiled timidly. Flora hated taking the bus, even after living in London for a year. “I can do this.”

Hershel and Luke both smiled. They knew that it was a big step for her. They finished breakfast, cleaned the dishes and said good-bye to Flora as she left.

“And what are we going to do after you handed in the papers, Professor? What about the letter?”, Luke asked as they were alone. Hershel took his coat. “We make a quick stop at the university and then we go to the clock shop the writer of this letter mentioned. Whatever we will find there, will tell us if the letter is real or if someone is trying to play a trick on us.”

Luke’s eyes lightened up enthusiastically as he put on his shoes and his blue hat. He was ready for a new adventure with the Professor. Or a nice afternoon, depending on whether the letter was real or not.

They couldn’t know, as they left the house to head to the bus station, that they were about to encounter the biggest mystery London had to offer.

 

_The mystery of a lost future._


	7. The Art of Manipulating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Clive looked down he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that he wasn’t alone. He looked around, then at the staircase at the end of the room. No one to be seen.   
> He looked back to the door of the office he had just left. But his eyes didn’t focus on the dark red wood.   
> They focused on Claire who was standing next to it. 
> 
> Well… He wondered how much of their conversation she had overheard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!   
> So, this time a bit more than a month went by... But here is the new chapter! And I finished all my finals (except for a additional exam I'm going to attend to next week) and officially graduate in two weeks! That's why I also have a new chapter for you since I have so much spare time now ^^   
> The chapter is a bit longer and I'm not quite sure what to think about it... in my head, all of this looked and sounded much better. But it was a necessary chapter. We are soon in the middle of the story, that I can tell you! I have to change up some details of the plot because my head came up with all these ideas while I was forced to study and couldn't write but... Layton and "Future Luke" will meet soon! 
> 
> I hope you like the chapter! :)

24th November 1974 

*

Doors and windows were closed, children pulled inside of their houses by their parents rapidly and the streets emptied within seconds as the strange group made their way down Scarlet Street. Yet, Clive could feel the eyes of Chinatown’s citizens on him as they pried through the gaps of the closed window shutters, he felt their gazes filled with pity and fear.

It wasn’t the first time someone was dragged down Scarlet Street towards the Towering Pagoda. It had happened often enough when “Evil Layton” believed that he had to get rid of someone. Someone who was rebelling against the system, against the great leader of the Family.

In reality, it had always been people, who had become dangerous to Dimitri. People who had somehow figured out that something was wrong about this version of London they were living in. Thanks to the numerous Family Goons all around the city, Dimitri had always gotten to know about these persons quite quickly. He would have them dragged out of their houses and all the way to the Towering Pagoda by three or four Family Goons so all the people around them could see what would happen if someone dared go against the Family.

Needlessly to say, these persons had never been seen again afterwards.

Clive, of course, knew he wouldn’t disappear or be killed or anything like that. They had never killed anyone. Future London’s citizens were thinking that, yes, that wasn’t to be denied.   
But “Evil Layton” would only laugh and tell the goons to go to work once they had arrived in the Towering Pagoda, leaving the people he wanted to get rid of back, bruised and scared to death. Literally.   
But they would only be sedated, brought back up and be marooned somewhere outside of London. If they went to the police and told them anything, they would be declared crazy. End of the story.

But Dimitri took every chance he got to make an example. That was the reason why Clive was dragged down the street quite violently. The goons didn’t know that he was working with Dimitri, otherwise they probably wouldn’t treat their boss like _that_.

In fact, not a lot of people did know about their relationship. And in this very moment, Clive regretted to never have officially told the entire Family that he was a boss as well. Ward was one of the few people who knew it, of course, which was why his gaze was filled with knowledge, not with pity, as the goons passed the Belltower Gate with Clive.

Fisheye and Lockjaw, two high-ranking members of the Family knew about his position, as well as Harold, the higher-ranked goon who usually kept watch in front of the _Silver Seven Casino_ to check who would be allowed to enter and who wouldn’t. Looking back, it actually was a good thing. This way, he could carry out his plan with the Professor without interruptions or the fear of someone accidentally blowing his cover.

His opinion was divided at the moment. No wonder, given the state he was in.

As the goons were dragging Clive upstairs the Towering Pagoda now, his head started to spin. When he had opened the door of his apartment as the doorbell had rung, he had thought it might be Cogg or Spring, maybe Claire who needed something from him or just wanted to pay him a visit. He obviously hadn’t had the slightest chance to react fast enough when he had seen the goons, and had received the first punch to the midriff followed by a resounding slap before he had been dragged out of his apartment. These guys were trained.   
He didn’t even want to know how many of his neighbours had been able to witness the pathetic sounds he had made. He really wasn’t a cry-baby and usually, pain didn’t bother him much, but these goons were _strong._

And he had absolutely no idea how long he was already being dragged along the streets. But he knew that his shoulders and arms were hurting from being held behind his back to a degree where it really started to become uncomfortable. And his head hurting and the long-lasting taste of blood in his mouth were definitely _not_ making things better.   
He tripped over a step, then immediately another. He silently cursed Dimitri for doing this to him as the goons pulled him up violently (so much about the “ _No violence allowed in the Towering Pagoda_ ”-rule) because Clive knew exactly what all of this was about. Dimitri had gotten to know about the Professor and Luke being here, and that a lot quicker than Clive had initially thought. But he hadn’t thought that Dimitri would take such drastic actions.

As he stumbled again one of the goons just picked him up and gave him the fireman’s lift. Didn’t make his head feel better but his arms were finally free.

But it definitely wasn’t good for his head to be thrown onto the dark red carpet as the group finally arrived in the office at the top if the Towering Pagoda. He let out a painful groan, momentarily not caring that he was practically to Dimitri’s feet. He was just relieved that he wasn’t hanging upside down anymore. And hey, his breakfast was still inside of his stomach.

“Thank you for bringing him. You can leave now,” he heard Dimitri’s cold voice, and even without looking Clive knew that he was wearing Layton’s attire. As he heard the door being closed, he inhaled deeply before he finally got up. Swinging his arms around and moving his head in circles slowly, he watched Dimitri’s back, how he was getting rid of Evil Layton’s attire.

“And that was really necessary?” Clive asked, his voice snarky, as Dimitri riveted on him. His gaze didn’t give away anything.

“What is _he_ doing down here?”

Alright, Dimitri was pissed.

“Who?” Clive asked dumbly as he fixed his tie. Now, that he could think and breath smoothly again, this was starting to be fun.

He had barely the time to blink, that quickly Dimitri planted himself in front of Clive.

“You know exactly about whom I am talking,” he said dangerous quietly. Okay, he wasn’t just pissed, he was furious. “I ask you again: _What. Is. He. Doing. Down. Here_?”

Clive forced himself to keep still and not back away. Not much fun anymore. He’d had no idea Dimitri could be that intimidating. “The Professor and the little boy?”

Dimitri frowned. “Which boy?” he wondered, taking a tiny step backwards as he was momentarily confused. Clive quickly exhaled. Much better.

He put it of with a wave of his hand. “Forget it. So, the Professor… yes, he is here now. I brought him down here. And before you freak out,” he hurried to say as he could literally see how Dimitri was about to explode, “let me explain.”

“I SHOULD _NOT_ FREAK OUT?!” Dimitri shouted angrily at him, even accidentally spitting small drops of saliva into Clive’s face. He ran the sleeve of his brown jacket over his face disgustedly before he looked at his partner again. “Yes. Lean back and let me explain.”

He waited until Dimitri had exhaled and indeed leaned against the desk, arms crossed over his chest and watching him closely. His eyes seemed to look right into Clive.

“Look,” he begun. He knew that he had to weigh every single one of his words but that was the fun part about it. Clive gave everything not to smile or grin. “When I was up in London a few times this past week, I was following the Professor around a bit, and I came to think of our initial plan again. I know we agreed on the new plan…”

_Like hell they did._

“… but I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. Look, we wanted the Professor down here in the first place because of his intellect and because he would help us for sure. These things haven’t changed. The only thing that has changed is Claire. The fact that she is here with us now, we didn’t know that this would happen. But why should we abstain from that help?”

“Because we can’t let them see each other!” Dimitri interrupted him loudly, but Clive only shook his head. “Let me explain. I know we can’t have them see each other. You are afraid she might leave. You are afraid she might turn away from you, am I right?”

This time, Dimitri didn’t answer.

Clive couldn’t prevent himself from a small smile now. He had Dimitri right where he wanted him. “Look, London is huge. And our London is the exact same size. The possibility that they would ever meet each other is little. And do you really think the Professor would recognize her? For him, she died ten years ago. Why should Claire be here, ten years in the future? He wouldn’t believe his eyes, even if he did see her. Don’t you think so, too?”

Still no answer. Dimitri was waiting.

“And, I assume, you told her that his last assistant, this Emmy, was his girlfriend, didn’t you? And she did actually believe you?”

“Of course, Claire believed me. And I thought this Emma was his girlfriend,” he shrugged, obviously lying. Clive could see it in his eyes. He knew it when someone wasn’t telling the truth, and, on top of that, Dimitri wasn’t a good liar at all.

He smirked. “Sure. We both know that this is not true. But true or not, do you really think she would want to have to do anything with him? After he left her for a mere _child_? Emmy is ten years younger than the Professor. Claire either won’t want him back, or he has long completed their relationship.”

He saw how Dimitri had to supress a smirk. Then, he frowned, and the tiny smile disappeared completely. “There is no guarantee that Hershel will still help us,” he noted.

Clive ran a hand through his hair. “There is. If he still loves her – in which way ever – he will help us. He won’t just let her die, the love of his life, if he is able to save her. And if he doesn’t love her anymore… who would he be to reject a request to save people from death? People who died due to the cruelness of someone? It would be an unforgivable thing to do, especially for him.”  

As Clive was saying this, he immediately began questioning his own words. Would he really do that? Clive didn’t doubt that the Professor would help them but… as he heard himself say these things, he realized how wrong they sounded. Saving someone from death? How absurd. He didn’t even know why, it just sounded so wrong. Maybe because it was so unlikely to happen. No one could be saved from death. Well, until now. Right?

“After all, besides his intellect, wasn’t there something else, you would have needed him for?” Clive asked, forcing himself to think of something else. Dimitri’s head snapped up as if he had been in a completely different universe.

“Yes… yes. I have a plan for a special kind of device, just for Hershel. They would measure brain waves and basically save the data which I could convert into the memories of the day it happened and memories of Claire to stabilize the wormhole which is used to travel through time. It would basically do the same as we did with Bill, it is just a different method. But since we abandoned this plan, I didn’t look at the plans anymore. It would take some time to build them now… a lot more than we have I guess…”, he mumbled, not looking at Clive for the moment.

He smirked. So far, things were going accordingly to his plan. Dimitri seemed to believe him. And Clive would lie if he said he wouldn’t enjoy manipulating him. It was quite some fun after all.

“Take all the time you need, Dimitri. I can keep them away from the Towering Pagoda and Chinatown, and bring them here when time has come”, Clive reassured him. Dimitri’s gaze was fixed on the younger man once again.

“And how do you intend to do that? What did you even tell him after all?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest, but leaning a bit forward.

“I told him that his little student needed his help in the future, but nothing else yet. I’m still convincing them that they actually travelled to the future. It will take one or two more days before I officially meet them.”

“His student?”

“The little boy. Luke. Wait.” Clive rounded the desk Dimitri was still leaning against to get the picture he had just brought Claire. He took a quick glance at it, holding it tightly. Was it really okay to show this to Dimitri? It was actually Claire’s… but then again, when it was just standing here, he could take a look at it whenever he wanted. So, Clive shrugged before he handed it to the older man.

“I don’t know if you see it but I…”

“I do”, Dimitri interrupted him and looked up. He smirked. “That’s brilliant, Clive. Just brilliant! I knew it was the right choice to pair up with you!” He was delighted, and Clive smiled albeit a little bitterly.

 _I don’t have an IQ of 148 for nothing_ , he thought grimly. _But I don’t quite intend to use it the way you would probably want me to._

“When will you meet up? What else will you tell him?” Dimitri asked, his tone eager to know these things. He wasn’t even trying anymore to hide his excitement. Clive was surprised, to say the least. Seemed like Dimitri was easier to manipulate than he had thought. He decided to just go with it and make good use of the situation. Not to do it would be a mere waste. He was becoming a bit reckless maybe, but then again: Where would be the fun if he didn’t?

“Well, to get him to come here, to Chinatown, I will tell him about the “Evil Professor Layton” but by the time we’ll meet, I guess they will already have an idea what is going on. He wouldn’t let anyone soil his good name. And then, we will see. Making them believe this is the future. I mean… Imagine: We trick the famous Professor Layton, London’s most intelligent man, into thinking that this is the future!”

Both men started to laugh. And Clive was shocked to realize how much fun that _actually_ was to him. He had known that he was a bit crazy (you had to be crazy when you took part in a plan like _this_ ) but he had never realized how much fun manipulating people was to him. It made him sad as he came to think about his parents’ and Constance’s reactions. None of them had raised him like that.

But there was no time for thoughts like these.

Their laughing subsided, and Dimitri put the photography back at its previous place. Clive took a deep breath and cleared his throat. He decided to go a step further, testing out how far he could go.  “Dimitri, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about this. The idea just overcame me and then… then it happened. I’m sorry.”

“There is no need to be sorry, Clive”, Dimitri reassured him immediately. “I didn’t tell you either about our change of plans. We are even, I guess.”

Clive looked at him, waiting for an apology… for having him dragged up here and punched a few times by the Family Goons for example, but… well, no apology, it seemed like. Dimitri remained silent. One day, when all of this was over, he would get that back. Clive was quite a vengeful young man, he knew that even if the thought of it tasted bitter.

_Like hell they were even._

“Tell the goons that a man who is masquerading as you is in town and that they should keep an eye on him. Maybe threaten him a bit, but not more. I’ll be meeting Layton and Luke at the casino tomorrow night where I will tell them about the situation with the evil Professor ruling over London. Once you are done with your device, I’ll be bringing them to the Towering Pagoda. Until that day, I’ll check in with you daily”, Clive promised, gritting his teeth at how much he despised this, but he had no other choice.

Dimitri nodded shortly. “Alright. You can leave now, Clive.”

 _‘Oh, really?’_ he thought sarcastically.

“I was about to leave anyway. I want to keep an eye on these two. I don’t want to miss the moment, I made them believe entirely that they travelled to the future.” He laughed.

Dimitri joined him with a throaty laugh as well. “I was counting on it. Oh, and _Clive_. Not a word to Claire.”

The way Dimitri said his name made Clive shiver all over. He laughed it off and nodded but was immensely relieved when he could finally leave the office. The hall was empty as Clive made his way over the Dragon Bridge. He stopped and run a hand through his hair. Taking a deep breath, he looked over the bridge’s edge. He could barely see the ground of the mirror room somewhere beneath him. It was surprising how high the Towering Pagoda actually was.

As Clive looked down he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that he wasn’t alone. He looked around, then at the staircase at the end of the room. No one to be seen.

He looked back to the door of the office he had just left. But his eyes didn’t focus on the dark red wood.

They focused on Claire who was standing next to it.

 _Well…_ He wondered how much of their conversation she had overheard _._

*

 

_“Because we can’t let them see each other!”_

Claire stopped wondering. She had already raised her hand to knock at the door but lowered it slowly as she heard Dimitri’s agitated voice through the door. _What was going on in there_?, she asked herself. Not able to make out another voice, she stepped closer to the door and laid her ear on the wood.

_“…would ever meet each other is little. And do you really think the Professor would recognize her? For him, she died ten years ago. Why should Claire be here, ten years in the future? He wouldn’t believe his eyes, even if he did see her. Don’t you think so, too?”_

_‘Clive! That was Clive’s voice!_ ’ Claire thought. But what shocked her more was the fact that they seemed to be talking about her. And Hershel? Did Clive mean him with ‘the Professor’? He was a professor at the Gressenheller University after all.

_“And, I assume, you told her that his last assistant, this Emmy, was his girlfriend, didn’t you? And she did actually believe you?” Clive’s voice was to be heard again._

_“Of course, Claire believed me. And I thought she was his girlfriend.”_

_“Sure. We both know that this is not true. But true or not, do you really think she would want to have to do anything with him? After he left her for a mere child? Emmy is...”_

_What?!_ Claire backed away with a gasp for air. She slapped her hand over her mouth as if she feared they could have heard her. Dimitri had been _lying_ to her? Why? So… so that she would turn away from Hershel? But why would he do that? He was her friend, he had always been honest with her. He knew how important Hershel was to her. After all, he had been the one she had always talked to when she hadn’t known what to do when it had come to her relationship. It hadn’t been her first relationship, of course not, but the first that had meant and still meant more to her. The first she would have been willing to keep. Like in forever.

Claire gulped and took a deep breath. She had to calm down. Maybe it wasn’t like she thought. She had to ask Dimitri. But instead of just knocking and asking him straight away, she decided to eavesdrop on them further.

_“…time. It would basically do the same as we did with Bill, it is just a different method. But since…”_

She backed away another time. The same as they had done to Bill? The had practically kidnapped him straight from his office. Claire had seen the sheer horror in his eyes as she had stepped into his office with Dimitri before the goons had entered behind them. She had seen what they had done to Bill. And they would do that to Hershel… NO! They couldn’t! This thing with Bill, it had been her plan, her idea. She wouldn’t be able to know that she would be responsible for the Family doing this very thing to Hershel.

She had to know what Dimitri and Clive were talking about.

 _“And how do you intend to do that? What did you even tell him after all?”_ Dimitri’s voice again. He still sounded worked up but more curious now.

_“I told him that his little student needed his help in the future, but nothing else yet. I’m still convincing them that they actually travelled to the future. It will take one or two more days before I officially meet them.”_

_“His student?”_

_“The little boy. Luke. Wait.”_

Luke?! What about Luke? What did they want from him? No… they couldn’t involve a child into this! She gritted her teeth. Her own personal horror was interrupted by Dimitri’s delighted interjection.

_“That’s brilliant, Clive. Just brilliant! I knew it was the right choice to pair up with you!”_

It had been Clive’s idea to involve Luke?! Claire swore, if something happened to the boy, she would kill Clive.

 _“When will you meet up? What else will you tell him?”_ Dimitri’s voice seemed elated. She grinded her teeth. What was going on? She didn’t understand it.

_“Well, to get him to come here, to Chinatown, I will tell him about the “Evil Professor Layton” but by the time we meet, I guess they will already have an idea what is going on. He wouldn’t let anyone soil his good name. And then, we will see. Making them believe this is the future. I mean… Imagine: We trick the famous Professor Layton, London’s most intelligent man, into thinking that this is the future!”_

And then, they started to laugh after Clive’s words. Claire couldn’t believe her ears. Evil Professor Layton? Soiling his name? What… Claire didn’t understand it. She had thought that she knew what was going on but clearly, she didn’t. She had thought they were doing this to save the people they had killed back on this fateful day of the experiment. She had never known anything that involved Hershel or this… whatever this was. Or whatever one wanted to call it.

The laugher inside of the office subsided and she could hear Clive’s voice.   
_“Dimitri, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about this. The idea just overcame me and then… then it happened. I’m sorry.”_

Sorry? What for?

She turned around and leaned against the door, closing her eyes. What were they talking about? What was really going on down here? What was all of this about? What was Hershel doing down here? And Luke? And what did they have to do with all of this? Why had Dimitri been lying to her? How many of the things he had told her were actually true? And what did they want to do to him?

Her head was spinning, and she was screwing up her eyes. ‘ _Focus’_ , she told herself and took a deep breath, ‘ _Don’t freak out. It doesn’t have to be like that. You maybe haven’t heard all of it._ ’

But deep down, she knew what this situation was like. She just knew.

Claire startled as she heard Clive saying that he was about to leave anyway. They would never believe that she had just gotten here. Looking around she decided to hide until Clive had left and then approach Dimitri. She hid behind one of the golden pillars next to the door, leaning her head against the wall. She heard how the door opened and Clive exit the room laughing. Without looking back, he crossed the Dragon Bridge. He stopped halfway, ran a hand through his hair and then looked down, his back to her. If he just kept walking, he wouldn’t see her.

 _What would they do to me if he saw me now?,_ she wondered.

Clive lifted his gaze from the precipice besides the bridge to watch the staircase. ‘ _Please, just leave’_ , Claire thought when he suddenly turned around. Their gazes locked, and the time seemed to freeze for a moment. Clive’s eyes dilated as he saw her. He clearly had reckoned without her being here. But when Claire opened her mouth to say something (she didn’t know what, just anything) he reacted.

Definitely not the way she had expected him to.

He laid a finger on his lips and slowly shook his head, his eyes never leaving hers, before he tilted his head in the direction of the staircase at the other end of the room. Claire was unsure. Should she follow him? Did he know she had eavesdropped them? She contemplated her options. She could also just go straight to Dimitri.

As if Clive had read her thoughts, he shook his head repeatedly and nodded to the staircase again insistently before he turned around to leave. Claire hesitantly followed him. Clive looked back at her, seeming content about her being right behind him, before he looked around and opened a door to a little room. It actually belonged to the emergency exit whose tunnel system traversed through the entire Towering Pagoda. It was pitch black inside once Clive had closed the door.

“What are you-,” Claire began, her voice echoing loudly. Clive hurried to silent her. “Not so loud, I don’t know how many of them are around here,” he whispered.

She took in a breath, but Clive quickly interrupted her. “Listen, whatever you heard, don’t believe it.”

“You-”

“No, please, listen,” he urged her, “I don’t know how much you heard-”

“I heard everything! I was standing there for the past twenty minutes! What are you doing to Hershel? And Luke? Are you insane for forcing a little boy into this… whatever this is?!” she whispered angrily, basically ready to jump at him any second.

“I don’t want to hurt them or anything! Claire, listen”, he repeated, “I guess you are here because you wanted to meet Dimitri, didn’t you?”

“I… yes.”

“Then he will be expecting you which means that we don’t have time right now. Meet me tomorrow at five o’clock in the park on top of the observatory. Please. And… Dimitri can’t know.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “So? And why should I do that? Who tells me you won’t lie to me?”

She felt a movement in the air as if he shrugged. “No one. You will just have to believe me. But if you still love him, you will come. You could also ask Dimitri since you are about to meet him anyway but… I’m sure he won’t tell you anything. But feel free to try it, I won’t stop you.”

And with that, Clive opened the door, checked if someone was there and left. Not without glancing at her a last time.

Claire stood there, absolutely confused for the moment before she made her way back to the office. She knocked and let herself in where she was met with a tired smile of Dimitri’s.

“Hi. Is everything alright? I just met Clive on my way up here. He seemed a bit troubled,” she said, watching him closely. Would he really lie to her?

“Of course. We just had a little discussion. Some underground connections aren’t working smoothly anymore. Turned out it was due to a mistake he made.” Dimitri shrugged before he turned back to his desk where he had been skimmed through some documents.

He wasn’t telling her the truth.

But she knew where she could learn it.


	8. Reasons & Excuses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You did this? You brought him down here by telling him that this is the future?” she asked doubtfully, and Clive nodded.   
> She shook her head, not believing him. He must be lying! “No. You won’t be able to trick him into thinking that this is the future.”   
> Clive smiled ironically. “Are you sure? Because I already did.” 
> 
> Of course, Claire didn't know about his actions yet. He had to tell her, doing that thing Dimitri was so afraid of. And it was so much fun. But, by all means, he didn't tell her everything. Clive would shoot himself in the foot if he did that. He didn't feel bad for it though he did practically the same as Dimitri.   
> After all, they all had their reasons and excuses for their actions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!   
> Again, a month passed - and I'm so sorry! I really tried my best to update this fic earlier but I just couldn't find the time. I volunteered for an extra exam to improve my grade, was stressed out with prom and afterwards with life. But I'm back now and I hope to upload the next chapter quicker, in like... in a week. I hope I can keep that promise.   
> Anyway, I hope you like the chapter. I'm not really sure what to think of it but I guess it's okay. 
> 
> ~Melinaa

25th November 1974

*

“Why?”

Clive turned around, an amused smile on his face. “It’s nice to see you, too. Let me guess, Dimitri didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear?”

Claire huffed as she leaned against the balcony parapet next to him. The prospect of the park was stunning, but she did not have the nerves to appreciate the sight today. It was bad enough that she had to be here to be enlightened about her situation. By a _child_.

Because that was what Clive was to her. He was too young to be involved in all of this. Too young to work with Dimitri on such an insane project. Too young to tell _her_ how things were going down here.

It had seemed like that, at least.

“He lied to me,” she finally admitted and that was probably one of the hardest things she had ever had to say.

Clive laughed breathily. “Told you so.”

“Spare me your wisdoms,” Claire shot back, gritting her teeth.

He didn’t turn as he continued, neither did he seem offended by her words. He seemed merely delighted. “Actually, I’m glad you came. Would have been a bit difficult to get this plan through alone.”

“Plan…?”

“It was my idea. To bring him down here,” Clive admitted with a tiny smile as if he was proud of his actions. Claire wasn’t entirely sure if she should be grateful or scold him. She decided to keep quiet for the time being.

“You see,” Clive began, “Dimitri’s and my initial plan was to rebuild the time machine to safe the people we love. My parents. You. And, by all means, the people who had to die that day, too. Dimitri had this strange device… I don’t really know how it works but it records memories and transcribe them into data. Data Dimitri wanted to use to recreate the exact day the accident took place. He needed my memories, his, Bill’s and Layton’s. That’s why we wanted to bring him down here.”

“Why does he need Hershel’s memories? I mean, Bill, Dimitri and I worked at the lab and were there that day, so were you. But Hershel?”

“He was connected with you. Feelings increase the strength of memories and I guess his feelings for you were pretty strong. Also, he was there that day. He came. Saved me. Anyway. He’s…”

“Saved you?” Claire rose an eyebrow. She’d never heard anything about this part of the story before. Clive finally turned his head to look at her for the first time since she arrived up here.

“I was there when the lab exploded. Was playing outside just a few streets away. I wanted to run in there to save them.” He looked at his nails a bit too interested now. Claire watched him closely.

“He held me back from running into the flames and calmed me down. I can still feel the slap when I dream of this moment. Was probably the only thing that made me listen and calm down.” He shrugged as if it didn’t bother him, but Claire knew this behaviour all too well. She laid a hand onto Clive’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry. About what we did to you. You know, we didn’t… I didn’t want this to happen.”

He smiled bitterly and shook off her hand. “Neither did Dimitri, I know. Get it over with.”

She took a step back and returned to her previous position. A question popped up inside of her head. “How do you know? That Dimitri didn’t want this? How do you know that you can trust him?”

Clive turned his head to her. He smirked. “For a scientist, you’re not very observant, are you?”

What do you mean?” _God, could anyone feel dumber?_

The smile on his face deepened. “Well, as I said, the initial plan was to rebuild the time machine. With Layton’s help because his memories are especially important to Dimitri. But when you showed up, though, Dimitri changed his mind. Without telling me, of course, which is why we had some… _disagreements_. Layton’s incredibly intelligent, and everything was already set up once you showed up here. He would have been such an immense help, and I’m not just talking about his memories… but knowing Dimitri…” He sighed and shook his head. Claire’s gaze must have been quite simple-minded because his smirk returned. “You really didn’t notice it ever, did you?”

“What?”

Clive chuckled. “This is too good. His feelings for you. Did you never notice that he is head over heels in love with you?”

She backed away. “Excuse me? Dimitri is a friend. We’ve been friends since I started studying at the university. We’re friends, nothing more.”

“Sure, just keep telling yourself that,” he laughed. He shook his head before he looked at her again, elbows on the balcony parapet to support him. “Why do you think he does all of this? Why do you think he is looking after you, making sure you have everything you want? Why do you think he built an entire futuristic London, and makes such efforts to rebuild the time machine? Why do you think we are rarely alone anymore? Come on, Claire, think.”

“He…” She struggled with finding a reasonable answer.

“See? There’s no other explanation for it. I can’t believe you haven’t noticed it earlier.” He chuckled again which made Claire angry. Who was he to tell her about Dimitri’s love life?! But then again… hadn’t she just struggled with finding an answer? After all, strong feelings often were the only explanation for the absurdist things people sometimes did.

It was just so hard believing this. Especially that she seemed to have never noticed Dimitri’s feelings.

Another question popped up in her head. “What do you mean with ‘ _we are rarely alone’_? What does it have to do with you?”

“Well, I was against the change of our plans. Dimitri was and still is afraid I might tell you everything like I do in this exact moment. He’s put me on the list, Family’s always watching me. Well, almost always.”

“Is that why…” Claire pointed towards his cheeks that looked a bit damaged as if someone had slapped him.

Clive ran his fingers over it, then nodded. “Yes. He found out that I brought Layton and Luke down are here a lot earlier than I thought. He had some goons showing up at my doorstep and drag me to the Towering Pagoda. Try to avoid getting on the list, alright?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Claire muttered. Her head was starting to spin again from the many information she had just gotten to know.

_What the hell had she gotten herself into?_

She sighed and crocked a bit. “Well, then… it seems like I have to be enlightened by a child. Go on, I’m listening.”

Clive rose his eyebrows amusedly. “Child? I’m only three or four years younger than you.”

Claire looked up. “Excuse me?”

“I’m twenty-three. I’m surprised Dimitri hasn’t even told you that. And you are… twenty-six? Or was it twenty-seven?”

“Twenty-six,” Claire muttered and ran a hand through her hair. She had a faint memory at Dimitri telling her that Clive was around that age, back on the first day she had met him. She had known it but never fully realized that he wasn’t much younger than her.

“See? You’re only three years older than me. And you, in contrast to me, haven’t spent the last five years with Dimitri.” He took off his blue head to run a hand through his hear which made Claire look up. She mustered him. He was dressed strangely today, dark blue hat with a matching tie and knee-high socks. Combined with that he wore dark red trousers which reached just past his knees and a light blue suit jacket. Those clearly weren’t his usual colours, he mostly wore a dark red, brown or black.

He seemed to have noticed her deep frown. “Part of the plan,” he explained as he put the hat back on.

“Plan?”

He cleared his throat before he finally started to explain everything. “As I said, our initial plan was to bring Layton down here to help us finish the time machine. We would have made him believe, once he would have arrived here, that he travelled to the future but wouldn’t be able to go back to his own time until the time machine was finished. But when you arrived here, Dimitri changed the plans. He was and still is afraid that, if you saw Layton, you would turn away from him. If you ask me, he thinks that you will develop feelings for him at some point and forget about Layton.

Dimitri believes that we don’t need Layton’s memories that urgently. Since you are here, we now have your memories – by the way, has he ever asked you for them? – his, Hawk’s and mine. He’s already had the thought of using Hawk’s memories but the idea of kidnapping him was completely yours. He had to kidnap the scientist because we had to replace Layton’s intellect with some equally intelligent people. Dimitri searched through the archives to find the best scientists and made sure to invite all of them as “Dr. Stolypin” to his time machine exhibition. I guess you know about that?”

“I know that we needed the help of those people. I didn’t know it was to replace Hershel,” Claire muttered, taken aback by what Clive had just said.

He shrugged. “But it was. Anyway, since Dimitri brought you down here, a lot of things changed… he became more obsessed with finishing the time machine. Probably because of your molecular instability – yes, I have noticed it, before you ask. I wasn’t happy in the slightest when Dimitri just changed our plans. But when I saw what was going on… I changed as well. I realized that my plans were just out of mind and that I had to stop.” He looked at her.

“That all of this had to stop. I’m honest with you because I want you to help me. I made some plans behind Dimitri’s back. I wanted to destroy London. I wanted to see the things these dreadful people loved to be destroyed. Hawks loves his London. The London he rules because of his corruption and abuse of laws. Because he sacrificed the lives of my parents and many other people just get money and power. I wanted to destroy London with my very own hands. And that’s not a metaphor. I’m being serious here.” Clive practically spit out the words by now.

“You wanted… Clive, that’s utter madness!” Claire was shocked. She hadn’t thought that he would be able to even think about such things.

He laughed darkly. “You have to be a bit crazy when you are down here and know what is going on.” He then turned towards her and took a step towards her. “Be careful, what you call madness, Claire,” he said quietly, “You had, after all, the idea to kidnap the Prime Minister of London and helped abducting him. If I’m mad, so are you.”

He didn’t let her any time to think about what he had said. He returned to his previous position and continued. “I had to do something. I needed help to stop Dimitri because I can’t do it alone. I spent a week up in London where I followed Layton and Luke. I have some friends down here who help me as well, but Layton was the only one who might be able to help me. I sent him a letter where I personated a futuristic Luke who needs his help in solving this problem. That’s the reason for these clothes actually.”

“You did this? You brought him down here by telling him that this is the future?” she asked doubtfully, and Clive nodded.

She shook her head, not believing him. He must be lying! “No. You won’t be able to trick him into thinking that this is the future.”

Clive smiled ironically. “Are you sure? Because I already did.”

Claire could only stare at him, searching for words. “H-How? How did you manage to make him believe that this is the future? What did you tell him?”

“Not a lot yet, to be honest,” he replied, “I let him explore the vicinity a bit and then sent him to the Green Hospital to visit an old friend.”

“Who else did you bring down here?” Her voice grew more horrified by every passing moment.

“No one actually. I don’t know how he got here but he is here now. I guess you don’t know a man named Don Paolo?”

Claire had to deny that.

“He and Layton know each other… in fact, he called Layton his archnemesis when I asked him, but I don’t know any further details. He’s a very intelligent man himself but spent his time going against Layton and… ‘ _distracting’_ him and Luke on their adventures.   
But, more important, he has a talent of disguising himself as literally anyone. I searched for him and asked him to disguise himself as an older version of Doctor Schrader. You know Doctor Schrader, don`t you? Layton used to study under him and seeing his clearly aged mentor in hospital might be the best way to convince him. I also got a rusty copy of his red car and placed it behind the hospital. That’s the only way to show how the time has passed in those few days I had.”

“You did all of this without Dimitri getting to know of it?” Claire asked doubtfully. She couldn’t quite believe it. “How did you do it?”

Clive shrugged. “There’s nothing a nice sum of money can’t do.”

She frowned. “From where do you have so much money? You’re twenty-three. You can’t tell me Dimitri pays you that well.”

He sighed. “He really hasn’t told you anything at all,” he muttered. Taking a deep breath, he continued louder, “When my parents died, a woman named Constance Dove took me in. Constance was a nice woman, already widowed and had never married again. She never had any children or other relatives, and a real fortune.   
After she died, she passed all of it to me. Since I was already eighteen then, I had an unlimited access to the money. Dimitri contacted me after he got to know about it – I guess he did some research on me as well – and asked me if I wanted to work together with him. Back then, I already had mapped out some plans of my own which is why I agreed almost immediately. That’s how our cooperation started. There’s still enough money left. I didn’t tell him about everything I inherited. I still have some valuables about which he doesn’t know.”

“I… I didn’t know about that. Is there anymore I have to know?”

Clive smiled… apologizingly? “There are still a lot of things, but I hope that you understand when I say that I can’t tell you everything at the moment.”

“Oh?” Claire rose an eyebrow at the younger man astonishingly, “And why is that?”

He looked over the park in front of them. “I don’t want to spoil anything. It’s not my matter to explain Dimitri’s crazy ideas to you.”

“And what was it that you just did then?”

“Not all of his ideas at least,” he corrected himself, yet his smile never faltered. Claire could only shake her head at this slightly. She was… well, calling it _overwhelmed_ would be a bit understated. And she felt a bit pulled over the barrel.

_A bit._

She crossed her arms over her chest. “And why should I trust you then? What tells you that I won’t go to Dimitri and tell him about all of this? That you brought Hershel and Luke down here to… to what to do actually?”

“To clear Dimitri’s mind,” Clive answered. The smile had now vanished from his face, and a serious expression had taken its place. “You see, it was never in my interest to kidnap anyone or to… hurt people. I didn’t know fully what Dimitri was planning when I started to work with him, I only figured it out with the time. I’m afraid it is now way too late to stop it. And that’s why I ask for your help now.  
You are on better terms with Dimitri than I am. He loves you – as you know now – and I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be anything he wouldn’t do for you.   
And speaking about the concerns I should have regarding to you: You could tell him everything, yes, but Dimitri will never give you the answers you want. You want answers and he wouldn’t have told you anything I just told you. And I know my way around here. I can bring you to Layton whenever you want.”

He could… bring her to Hershel? Claire contemplated. What should she do? Receiving this amount of information and then having to decide immediately was a hard task. Clive looked at her, waiting patiently for her answer. _What should she do? …_ Thinking about it, Dimitri clearly had changed. Of course, ten years had passed for him since she had… since the accident. Of course, people changed over so much time. But she still trusted him… actually.

He had lied to her, not telling her the truth, keeping things a secret from her. He had never done that before. That had always been a characteristic she had admired deeply. Dimitri had always spoken his mind – he had told her honestly whenever one of her ideas hadn’t been a good one. But now… she saw the evidence of Dimitri’s change on Clive’s cheek. He had never been able to do that to someone when Claire had gotten to know him all those years ago.

There was actually only one correct answer.

“Alright,” she answered, “I will help you. But…”

“But?” Clive tilted his head, rising an eyebrow at her, and crossed his arms over his chest. He seemed uncomfortable.

“What about the time machine? Will we still finish it? Or…”

“We will,” Clive interrupted her. The tiny smile returned to his face. “That’s probably the only thing you can’t Dimitri prevent from doing, and the only thing we still agree with each other. Not that I would want it. Rebuilding the time machine was the initial idea for all of this.” He gestured around him, making Claire’s gaze follow his arm. _Future London_. All of this for building a new time machine and save the people who had to die on this fateful day.

“Alright. You better don’t break your promise.” He let his gaze wander over the park. Claire did so, too, until he continued.

“We won’t be alone. It will take some time until Layton will work with us but until that, some other people will help us. Shipley, for an instance – you already know him. He worked for Constance, along with Cogg and Spring.”

“Cogg and Spring?”

He gazed at her. “The owners of the clock shop. This way, we can use the time machine without having anyone knowing. They know I work with Dimitri, yet don’t really like him. Not a lot of people know it actually, only some of the higher-ranked goons like Ward, the man guarding the Belltower Gate. Some more but… that’s not really important. We should keep quiet about out cooperation. The less people know the littler the chance Dimitri could accidentally get to know about it.”

“I agree. Why do the goons not recognize you as their boss, too? Why didn’t you tell them?”

Clive shrugged. “I never wanted to have to do too much with all of this. I’m not a scientist – though I’m not stupid – so I figured I wouldn’t be much of a help. And this way, I can go where ever I want without being eyed carefully by the citizens here. And, of course, I won’t have my cover blown that easily.”

“True,” Claire whispered. He had thought all of this through thoughtfully. They remained silent, each dwelling in their own thoughts. It was a lot she had to digest.

Yet one question remained burning in her chest. She turned her head around.

“You… you said you know where he is? Hershel?”

“Yes. I’m about to meet him and Luke later. Why do you ask?”

Claire inhaled deeply. “Could you… bring me to him? Please?” she asked hesitantly. Clive smiled at her. This time, it was an honest smile, not a sarcastic or ironic one as usual.

 “You understand that you can’t talk to him or anything, don’t you?”

She nodded, and Clive sighed. His smile faltered.

“Sure, I can. Follow me.”

*

Clive hadn’t told her about Dimitri posing as an evil version of her beloved Professor who ruled over Future London. Neither had he told her that he wanted Layton to stop _her_ as well.

He hadn’t told her that he thought she had grown insane just like Dimitri. He feared she might not cooperate with him anymore just like Dimitri feared she would turn away from him once she met the Professor again.

 _We all have reasons with which we excuse our actions_ , Clive thought as Claire followed him through the streets.

He didn’t feel bad for it.

He had his reasons. He had an excuse.


	9. Luke's Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Professor?” he asked but didn’t get an answer. It surely took the boy a minute and the Professor only reacted when Luke eventually waved two hands in front of his face. “Professor? Is something the matter? You look dazed.”  
> The Professor shook his head, slowly, and blinked rapidly. “I… I’m fine, Luke. My eyes seem to be playing tricks on me.”  
> “Does this have something to do with that lady who just walked by?” he questioned.  
> “It’s probably nothing. She just reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago,” he answered a little off.  
> “She reminded me of someone, too. Maybe we met her on one of our adventures?”  
> The Professor spun around to glance at him. “No, Luke. You were still a baby when… No, you don’t know her, I’m sure. Come, we don’t want to be late.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> I know, it's not a week like I promised... but only two weeks is better than four, five or even six, right? Truth is, I didn't have a lot of time to write during my vacation but now I had :)  
> As we approach the plot of the game now, I also have to write this. But to not to make it too long, I decided to summarize the events so we all know where exactly we are. The plot will line up with the plot of the game for the next few chapters. So, to summarize the events before the Professor and Luke meet "Future Luke" I described it as if Luke was writing in the little notebook with the Gressenheller University's logo he has (you can see it in Eternal Diva).  
> I really hope you like this chapter as there will be another one some chapters later to summarize some things. The chapters will also be a bit shorter than the other ones. You hopefully don't mind.  
> Have a nice weekend!

_ Saturday, 23th November 1974 _

_I can’t believe what happened today! The Professor and I… Wait, I should start at the very beginning._

_Yesterday, a man, a postman, came up to me and gave me a letter for the Professor, which was – you won’t believe it – written by me! … Uhm… not exactly me, but by my future self. That’s at least who the writer claimed to be. Of course, the Professor and I immediately thought that someone was playing a trick on us. The Professor even thought it is me! I would never do that!_

_Anyway, my future self… this is so strange, isn’t it?  – told us to go to the Clock Shop on Baldwin Road here in London which we did after Flora left the house today. I feel bad for leaving her behind again, but it is much safer this way. I mean, we couldn’t possibly know what would happen!_

_We actually travelled to the future! It turned out the writer wasn’t a liar after all… The Clock Shop is a time machine which brought us ten years into the future! Which means… the writer of this letter could be me. I wonder what I will be like in the future…_

_The future indeed is something extraordinary. Once we arrived we were shut out of the Clock Shop! The Professor and I then decided to investigate the neighbourhood. I will shortly summarize what happened today:_

_-I got a present, apparently. The people in the future seem really nice. When we first investigated a little café, an older man gave me a puzzle to solve and then a picture book once I solved it. I’m a bit too old for that but it’s a special picture book. I can make the story up myself with stickers I can find or buy!_

_-We met Belle… she ran into me and she calls me Fluke and she talks about us being a couple! Baah! I mean, isn’t Cynthia at home already enough?!... home… I wonder when we will able to go back to our own time. And what happened to my parents? Are they still in America in this time? Am I still in America? Oh no, I can’t be, I’m here. If the letter is real, of course. Did I convince them to come back? Did I even do that? Or did I come back by myself?_

_-We also met Granny Riddleton! But she goes on vacation! Who will be looking after our puzzles now?! She said that would be taken care of... I hope so. I can’t stand all these puzzles we would possibly leave behind… :(_

_-The bus line was discontinued five years ago. This was when I believed that we actually traveled to the future. This London… I grew up here and I feel like I don’t remember anything. And when I imagine London looking like that in ten years… I guess, I prefer America then. People use the underground now. I have never used an underground before._

_When we arrived at Midland Road, we met the postman, who gave me the letter, again. He gave us another letter which was also written by my future self! I copied it here since the Professor has the original, of course._

**_“Professor, if you are reading this, it means you’ve made it safely to my time. I can hardly wait to see you again. I wish to enlist your help in freeing this town from the tragedy that has befallen it.  
But first, I’m sure you’ll want some proof that you actually are in the future. I’ve thought long and hard about the best way of convincing you. Make your way to the address below. What you find there is sure to quell any doubts. _ **

**_Room 312_ **   
**Green Hospital**   
**123 Auckland Lane”**

_At least, I know Green Hospital. We haven’t made our way there yet since it got quite late today. We went to a hotel called “Hotel Duke”. I have never heard of it before, but it appears to be well known in this London. We met Becky there who offered us a room at their hotel to stay, an offer the Professor and I thankfully accepted. It really is a nice hotel and it had great food! The sandwiches were delicious! Becky is nice, too, even though she treats me like a kid! I’m thirteen! But she recommended us a restaurant, so I guess she is alright._

_But… I’m wondering. We met a lot of people which were extremely worried or even scared when they saw the Professor. More specifically, the Professor’s top-hat. There was a boy who even started shaking voluntarily and ran off as soon as we wanted to talk to him. What does that mean? The Professor would never harm a single person! He wouldn’t even be rude to someone! How could someone be afraid of him?_

_It was a really long day. The Professor is in the bathroom at the moment and we will have some sleep before we make our way to the Green Hospital tomorrow. I’m excited what will await us. Will we meet my future self? Or even a futuristic Professor? That would be something!_

_~~ Sunday ~~ _ _ Saturday, 24th November ~~1974~~ 1984 _

_Do you know how strange it is to write this date?!_

_It’s evening again as I am writing this. To start our day, the Professor and I had some breakfast at the restaurant Becky recommended to us. And they offered the best breakfast I ever had!_

_I also got another present! The people in the future are really nice! Becky’s grandmother Margaret gave me a Toy Car! As I already said, I’m actually too old for that… but that’s alright. This toy car I really like because it looks just like the Laytonmobile! I also already played with it when we arrived in the hotel some time ago. You have to place tiles on the different boards to make the car change its direction. It’s actually quite entertaining, I have to say._

_After we finished our breakfast, we finally found the underground station. On our way there we encountered some strange men. All of them were dressed in grey entirely and threatened us, especially the Professor just because of his top-hat! I can’t understand that! I remember, we also met one of these men yesterday already. I didn’t think too much of it because I thought it was just someone else who told us to get rid of the Professor’s hat – almost everyone we met told us that. But the Professor would never take off his hat. A gentleman would never do so!_

_The drive with the underground wasn’t anything special. I imagined it being a lot more spectacular. The Green Hospital hasn’t changed much over the past years. It was quite nice seeing something I still remember._

_At the hospital, we asked the receptionist where Room 312 is, and she told us that Doctor Schrader was in there! I think you can imagine what has gotten into the Professor when he heard this. You could even say that he was a bit timid when we finally went into Doctor Schrader’s hospital room. I guess he could only remember what happened to Doctor Schrader just a few months ago when he found out about the Elysian Box and nearly got killed. I can’t blame the Professor, I was a bit hesitant as well._

_But Doctor Schrader seemed well. He definitely got older… I mean ten years passed, so it’s only natural – he was joyful to see us. He and the Professor caught up on a lot of things and we exchanged some puzzles. I could even solve one of Doctor Schrader’s and he complimented me on it!_

_He also said something about some rumours about the Professor he has heard just frequently though he doesn’t believe a single one of them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell us about them since he seemed to have forgotten about these rumours… I could bet they are tied to the strange reactions to the Professor’s top-hat._

_Before we knew it, we had spent the entire day with Doctor Schrader. I hope he will be getting better soon. He had a surgery last week but the doctor who showed up during the afternoon told us he will be better soon. He left an X-ray the Professor and I looked at and oh dear… the doctor played a little trick, he laid some scissors, a mouse and some other things on the X-ray! That’s so mean! Who would dare to play such a trick on Doctor Schrader??_

_But the Professor said he believed Doctor Schrader to be the one who did that… I can’t believe Doctor Schrader used to be someone to play tricks on others. But it’s nice to know that someone so smart once played tricks on people just like I sometimes do (not often of course!). I wonder what the Professor did when he was younger… did he play tricks on others, too? I will have to ask my father about this once we make it back… or maybe I’ll meet him here? I’ll have to ask my future self. **Don’t forget!** _

_When we wanted to leave the hospital in the evening, Doctor Schrader gave us some keys he said he wouldn’t be needing anymore. They look like he has had them for a long time. He also told us to go to the back of the hospital, we would find something there. The Laytonmobile!_

_You can imagine our surprise upon seeing it again. It seemed to be exposed to the elements for a long time, it was all rusty and dusty. But there was a newer lock on the door we could open with the keys Doctor Schrader gave us. Unfortunately, the engine couldn’t be started anymore. That’s understandable. It’s been ten years since we last saw the Laytonmobile, we shouldn’t be too surprised about a few broken parts._

_But, the good thing, we found another letter! It says that we will meet my future self soon… as I already said to the Professor, I’m not sure if I’m ready to do so… I mean, how will it change me? How did I change? What will Luke… What will he be telling us? It makes me uncomfortable to write his name though he’s… me. I really don’t know. I just know that this is not a nice feeling. I have the letter copied here again:_

**_“Professor, I hope that by this point, you’re convinced that this is the London of the future. Now that we are all on the same page, I’d like to explain to you the secret that’s plaguing London. However, I think it would be best to discuss this issue in person.  
Meet me at the Gilded 7 Casino on Flatstone Street. I’ll be waiting for you there.” _ **

_The letter appears to be newer than the rest of the car. My future self must have been here before we arrived here. But how did he know? Maybe he is friends with the postman. They must know each other at least. When we first read the letter at the Laytonmobile, I looked around and wondered what my future self saw and thought when he was here. It can’t be longer than a day or two since he was here. And standing where he stood… It made me shiver a bit._

_Tomorrow evening, we will make our way to the Gilded 7 Casino. I’ve never been to a Casino and I’m not too sure if I will be let in, I mean… I’m thirteen. Definitely not a kid anymore but I’m not even close to being an adult. Maybe my future self thought the Professor would come without me, so they could be together… but wouldn’t it also be us together again? Maybe he doesn’t want me to be there? Will the Professor be leaving me behind? These and a lot more thoughts make my stomach turn. I also wonder if this is how Flora always feels. When this is over, I promise to spend more time with her. **Important!**_

_ Sunday, 25th November ~~1974~~ 1984 _

_At least I wrote the correct day of the week today._

_We spent the day investigating the city after we had breakfast at the hotel this time. Their breakfast was great as well. But I noticed a lot of people staring at us, especially at the Professor. I hope my future self will be able to tell us the reasons for all these strange events._

_We slowly made our way towards the casino earlier but there was one of these greyly dressed men who wouldn’t let us pass. Becky told us about these “goons” and that we should just be waiting a bit, they would come and go. Becky also said that the casino was a “Family-hangout” and the goons seem to be members of the Family. They are criminals. I wonder why the police isn’t doing anything. Inspector Chelmey would never let a criminal organisation take over his beloved London! I wonder if we will ever meet him here…_

“Luke, my boy, should we go? It’s almost time.” The Professor interrupted Luke’s frantic writing into his journal. They sat at the restaurants in the arcades where they had their breakfast yesterday but had some tea this time. The afternoon was slowly coming to an end.

The boy looked up and nodded. “Yes, Professor. I just finished my writing. Here’s the letter.” Luke gave him back the letter he had just copied into his notebook. He looked at it one last time and compared his own writing with the letter’s and wondered for the hundredth time if the handwritings looked alike. The did indeed if you asked Luke.

They paid for their tea and made their way north. As Becky had told them, the goon they had seen earlier around here, wasn’t here anymore. Upon making their way north, something strange happened. A lot of strange things had happened over the past two days but if you asked Luke, he’d say that this would be the strangest.

A woman passed them, and the Professor momentarily _froze_. Luke wouldn’t have looked at her a second time if this didn’t happen but now he did. Luke was sure to know her from somewhere now that he looked at her more closely. White sunhat, blue blazer, dark green trouser. She didn’t look at them, she just passed them without even noticing them. Luke’s eyes grew as the Professor stopped and spun around with an audible gasp. And Luke was sure he had never seen such an expression on the Professor’s face ever before.

“Professor?” he asked but didn’t get an answer. It surely took the boy a minute and the Professor only reacted when Luke eventually waved two hands in front of his face. “Professor? Is something the matter? You look dazed.”

The Professor shook his head, slowly, and blinked rapidly. “I… I’m fine, Luke. My eyes seem to be playing tricks on me.”

“Does this have something to do with that lady who just walked by?” he questioned. Maybe the Professor knew her? But how? She must have altered ten years if he knew her back in their own time, but she still looked so young.

“It’s probably nothing. She just reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago,” he answered a little off, his eyes still fixed on the direction the lady walked. Luke looked this way, too, as if he expected her to suddenly show up again and revealing who she was.

“She reminded me of someone, too. Maybe we met her on one of our adventures?”

The Professor spun around to glance at him. “No, Luke. You were still a baby when… No, you don’t know her, I’m sure. Come, we don’t want to be late.”

Luke had to hurry to keep up with the Professor. Were they always so fast when they walked through London? Certainly not.

When they were held up by a guard who wouldn’t want to let them pass without solving a puzzle first, Luke left it to the Professor and sat down on some stairs nearby to write what just happened into his notebook.

 

_… I have never seen the Professor in a state like that. And I’m sure I have already seen this lady once. I’m not sure when it was or where, but I have. But the Professor said he knew her when I was still a baby… Then I can’t know her. Maybe she studied with him at the Gressenheller University? Was she a friend of his? My father had never told me about her, I know that. It was always him, Mom and the Professor. And Doctor Schrader, of course. But who could she be? Who would she be to throw the Professor of track like that? Who…_

 

When the Professor called him, Luke hurried to stuff his notebook into his bag and run after him. Because of his hurrying he shortly forgot about his anxiety over meeting his future self. But when the Gilded 7 Casino appeared in front of them it hit the boy at full tilt and he didn’t know anymore if he really wanted all of this to happen. But they had to help him.

After all, that’s what a gentleman does. 


	10. The Gilded Seven Casino

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “In the months that followed the explosion, you slowly grew distant to me. Before long, you began fraternizing with key figures of the criminal underworld,” Clive began, and he could practically see how little Luke’s heart broke into two pieces at his words. But that wasn’t something that would stop him. He was a kid, he would get over it.  
> “The Professor? Never!” Luke’s voice shivered a bit.  
> “Don’t be so sure. Time has a way of changing people, Luke.” 'You wouldn’t believe how true this really is… Clive thought of Dimitri and especially Claire shortly. He eyed the Professor upon his next words. Would his face give away something? Would he know what Clive was referring to? Would he become insane just like Dimitri? Or would he help Clive to end all of this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again after a really long time.  
> I'm so sorry that writing this chapter took me so long again. To be honest, it was exhausting to write as I basically had to follow the game here entirely. I can't wait until I can go back to writing my own dialogues even though they will never be as good as the ones in the game.  
> I hope you like the chapter! 
> 
> Have a nice weekend,  
> Melinaa

25th November 1974

*

Propping himself on his elbows, Clive was standing behind a railing high up to overlook the Gilded Seven Casino. It was close to eight and from what he had witnessed, the Professor and Luke should be entering the building soon. He pulled on his blue hat and couldn’t supress a smile. He was so close to meeting them, the tension in his belly increased with every second. He knew he hadn’t convinced them entirely yet… the Professor at least. But he was curious to find out how good his work had turned out.

“Just look at these fountains! And the floors! This place must have cost a fortune to build!” Clive suddenly heard a high-pitched voice. Looking beneath him, he saw to persons, a small one with a blue hat just like his, and a tall person with a top-hat. His smile turned into a smirk when he heard the Professor speak.

“I know you’re excited, Luke, but do try to keep your voice down.”

Clive slowly stepped downstairs, his gaze never leaving the duo as they slowly made their way further into the casino. The tension in his belly became more and more uncomfortable as he overtook them without being spotted by them.

“Sorry Professor, this place is just so impressive.” He heard Luke say as he gazed around. Clive was amused at how the boy just couldn’t stop turning his head and taking everything in. Yes, the casino was quite the eyecatcher.

“I understand the feeling. It’s also quite large. Finding your future self in here might prove a challenge.”

 _Oh really?,_ Clive thought upon stepping in front of them. He stopped a few metres away from the duo as they came to an abrupt halt upon spotting him.

“He’s the… future me?” Luke hesitantly asked, his eyes and mouth as big as the sun. It took Clive everything not to laugh at the boy’s utter astonishment. He believed him for sure.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Professor,” he began and with that, all the tension fell from Clive and he wondered why he had ever been nervous in the first place. This was what he was good at. “Or rather… I suppose I should say it’s nice to see you again. It’s me, Luke Triton.”

The Professor didn’t let any emotion slip but when Clive turned his gaze to the little boy, he gasped for air. Though it was silent, there was no way Clive would have overheard it.

 _This would be fun_.

“Hello Luke,” the Professor greeted him cautiously after a moment of silence. Clive noticed the hesitation in his voice because of the insanity of this whole situation. But what pleased him the most was the fact that also the Professor seemed to believe that he was the older version of his apprentice.

“Uhm, hi Professor… Oh, you’re talking to him. This is going to take some getting used to.” Luke interrupted his joyful thoughts quite nicely.

 _Don’t roll your eyes, Clive_ , he told himself, _this is a lot to take in for the boy. Just go with it. You know you have to._

So, he said, “I can’t believe how small I used to be” and chuckled quietly upon touching the brim of his hat.

“Hmph! I’m not THAT small!” Luke’s voice rose up and Clive chuckled again. The boy sure was funny.

“So, tell me,” the Professor interrupted their little debate, “why exactly did you go through such pains to bring us here?”

The Professor was curious. Of course, he was. That was a good thing. “I’ll be happy to tell you in just a moment,” he answered. “But before that, I’d like to verify that I’m dealing with the real Professor Layton here.” He tipped a finger against his chin and waited for their reactions.

“Who else would I be?!” the Professor’s voice got a bit louder. Not much but enough for Clive to notice with an unhealthy satisfaction.

“Allow me to explain. In my London, it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t know the name Hershel Layton. In fact, many imposters have come forth recently claiming to be him.”

“Are you saying you think the Professor is a fraud?!” Luke suddenly exclaimed. Clive smiled a bit upon reminding the little boy of Don Paolo who had tricked them on their adventures not only once. None of them looked happy about Clive’s suspicion but in the end, the Professor played along in “ _The Battle of Wits_ ”.

He slowly understood why Dimitri acted to dramatic whenever he posed as the Professor. It was fun. And it disgusted Clive that he was able to relate to Dimitri.

“As a cautious man, I’m sure you have questions about my identity as well. So that we may each prove our identities, I propose we demonstrate our respective intellects,” Clive explained while he led the Professor and Luke to a card table nearby. He couldn’t remember when he had spoken as _eloquently_ as today the last time.  
“I’ve prepared a puzzle that can only be solved by someone as insightful as the Professor.” A bit praising like Luke loved to do couldn’t hurt, Clive thought. But the Professor only seemed barely impressed.  
“Should you find the solution, I’ll give you a chance to present me with a similar challenge. If I am who I say I am, I should have no trouble solving whatever you throw my way, should I?”

Luke looked like his head would explode any second at what Clive had just said.

His eyes lay on the Professor while pulling four cards he had already prepared out of his jacket’s pocket. He distributed them evenly on the table with a single movement of his hand. Luke looked extremely impressed and Clive quickly wondered if that’s what it was like having a little brother. But he quickly got rid of this thought.

“Let’s get started. Before us…” He quickly explained the ruled of his game, having no doubt that the Professor would solve it. The puzzle itself was so easy. While eyeing the Professor how he solved it, he wondered with what his mind would come up when proposing a riddle like this to Clive.

“Nothing would make me happier,” he answered when Layton asked to do this exact thing.

But the conditions the Professor had set didn’t add up. The spade couldn’t be placed according to… He tipped a finger against his chin. This puzzle was unsolvable. Unless… unless the Professor had caught on to Clive’s little trick.

He played along. He acted as if he chose a card, then another, before he stepped back. “You almost had me there, Professor. But, as you know, this puzzle is flawed. It’s unsolvable.”

“Is that so?” the Professor answered curiously.

“Yes.” _No_. “I tried several solutions, but none work given the conditions you’ve set forth.”

“Oh really? Tell me, did I ever state that the four cards on the table contained one card from each suit?”

Yes, he had caught on to Clive’s little trick. He even explained it in every little detail. Clive had thought he would be annoyed by that, but he wasn’t. He was delighted to have met someone equal to his intellect.

He smiled and touched the brim of his hat. “It seems you’re the genuine article, Professor.”

Layton returned the smile. “I’m glad to see that I’ve finally convinced you.”

“To be honest, I was convinced from the very beginning. But I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pit myself against my mentor in a battle of wits.” That’s what Luke would say.

“Hmm. I’m flattered… I suppose.” He seemed more cautious again, but the smile didn’t falter.

“Out with it already! Why did you call us here?” Luke interrupted them. Even though Clive was posing as him he had almost forgotten the boy was still here. Stupid mistake.

“There are too many eyes on us here. There’s a supply room in the back where we can talk. Follow me.”

The supply room was in the back of the casino. It was an old, dusty room everyone seemed to have forgotten, even Dimitri. Which was why Clive had chosen this room and claimed it to be his a long time ago.

Even though the duo had seen the aged Doctor Schrader, walked through the futuristic London and were in a casino which had been placed in this actually sleepy part of town, they weren’t entirely convinced yet. Luke probably more than Layton, but this had to be expected.

“What happened to this city?” Luke questioned and then rambled on about how Don Paolo was the genius that was responsible for all of this. _Sure. As if he wasn’t intelligent enough himself to cope with Don Paolo._

“Who is it? I’ve got to know!” Luke pressed to know. Clive almost felt sorry for what he was about to say next.

“His name is Hershel Layton. That evil genius is you, Professor.”

Bewilderment on both of their faces was the reaction, Clive was confronted with.

“WHAAAAT?!” Luke looked as if he was about to pass out every moment.

“I… was afraid you’d say that,” the Professor managed to utter. He was just as pale as his apprentice.

“That can’t possibly be right!” Luke shouted, looking at his beloved Professor horrified. Clive gave them a moment to assimilate the information he had just given them before he continued. This was going well, extremely well. As long as he continued playing his role like this, they would believe everything he would tell them.

“I’m sad to say that there’s no mistake here,” Clive was sympathetic to them, “They call him the devil in the top hat, and he rules London from the shadows. This is common knowledge to everyone in London.”

Luke’s face crumbled at his words but that wasn’t even the worst part. Clive almost felt a bit bad for saying these things, but they belonged to the plan.

He pulled an “ _old_ ” newspaper from his bag and handed it to the Professor before he explained to them what right after the accident with the time machine in the British Parliament and that ‘Dr. Stahngun’ had survived, vanished and gotten help from the Professor himself.

“In the months that followed the explosion, you slowly grew distant to me. Before long, you began fraternizing with key figures of the criminal underworld,” Clive began, and he could practically see how little Luke’s heart broke into two pieces at his words. But that wasn’t something that would stop him. He was a kid, he would get over it.

“The Professor? Never!” Luke’s voice shivered a bit.

“Don’t be so sure. Time has a way of changing people, Luke.” _You wouldn’t believe how true this really is…_ Clive thought of Dimitri and especially Claire shortly. He eyed the Professor upon his next words. Would his face give away something? Would he know what Clive was referring to? Would he become insane just like Dimitri? Or would he help Clive to end all of this?

“It was clear that something about Stahngun’s research had captivated you, Professor. You couldn’t stop talking about time travel. You seemed possessed by the idea of changing the past.”

“Changing the past?” the Professor interjected but Clive didn’t give him an answer.

“Dr. Stahgun was very interested in continuing his research, but he needed financial backing to do it. So, you used your superior intellect to assume control of London’s underworld.”

“No way…,” Luke’s voice died in the end and he inhaled deeply. Clive feared he might start to cry soon.  

“Of course, there were those who tried to stop you. But no one was a match for your smarts. Before long, you were raking in the pounds from all sorts of dirty business.” Clive tipped a finger against his chin. This was becoming more and more fun.

He went on about the more or less completed “time machine” in the clock shop and how lucky they had been that the time machine’s “wormhole” spanned the exact ten years between the two times.

“Tell us why you called us here”, the Professor demanded to know. Clive would be all too happy to tell him the entire truth but… it would end a bit… uncomfortable. Most probably for all three of them.

“Always one step ahead of me. You haven’t lost your touch, Professor. I wish to enlist your help in stopping the future Hershel Layton.”

“You want me to stop myself?” Oh, that sounded funny indeed.

“Even as we speak, future Layton is racing to complete a fully operational time machine. He’s been ducking back into the past to gather every bright scientist working in time travel.”

“But why bother going back through time to find scientists? There must be plenty here.”

He continued explaining how “evil Layton” had gone back in time because most scientists had vanished after the explosion. Of course, they had, Dimitri and the goons had kidnapped them in the chaos of the explosion and its aftermath. Clive still didn’t know how he had managed to do so without anyone noticing. He hadn’t been with them because someone had to look after Claire that she didn’t do anything she… anything Dimitri didn’t want her to do. And this had been Clive’s task in this action.

He explained to them that the Family had many facilities and hideouts, but that it was also well known that the Towering Pagoda was evil Layton’s base which was where they had to go first.

Though the unpleasant situation they were currently in, the Professor suddenly smiled at Clive. “Just so you know, Luke, there’s still quite a bit that I find dubious about this situation. Much is still unclear but the only way to get to the bottom of this is to meet the man claiming to be me.”

Was he suspecting something? No, that couldn’t be. He had already expected that the Professor would say something like this. Clive returned his smile and pulled on his hat. He wasn’t used to this one yet. “Somehow I figured my brief explanation wouldn’t be enough to convince you, Professor,” he chuckled.

“Oh yes, and there’s one more interesting fact you should know, Professor,” Clive added after exchanging empty phrases with Luke.

“Yes?”

“There is no record of a scientist matching Dr. Stahngun’s name and description. The name’s a fake.”

“Really now?” the Professor crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Clive nodded. “Whoever he was, he made an effort to hide his real identity from the people at the demonstration.” Dimitri would have been stupid if he hadn’t done so.

Luke crossed his arms in front of his chest and frowned worriedly. Did the boy know he easy he was to figure out? “Now that you mention it, few people at the demonstration seemed to know the man,” he noticed. Clive nodded at that. What else was he supposed to do? This had been the point of the charade Dimitri had put up.

“What would motivate Stahngun to use a false name? Just what was he planning?” the Professor questioned.

 _Really now, Professor?,_ Clive thought but answered, “Another interesting question we’ll hopefully answer along the way.”

“It doesn’t make any sense. Hmm…,” Layton muttered so quietly that Clive had almost missed it.

“What are you thinking, Professor?” Luke asked him.

 _Yes Professor, what are you thinking?_ Upon thinking his eyes fell onto the clock in the back of the room. It was getting rather late and a boy like Luke shouldn’t be in an environment like a casino this late. How did he come in here anyway? “We can talk more as we go,” Clive interrupted the duo, “For now, we need to head back to Flatstone Street.”

He led them outside. The casino was filled to the brim with all sorts of people. Rich people, poor people, men and women, goons and…

“Oh, there you are, boss!”

Dimitri couldn’t be freaking serious. Like… _really_.

They had almost made it out.

“Oh!” Layton seemed to know that they had gotten themselves into trouble once they had turned around to the man who was speaking to them. Of all people, Dimitri had to have _Bostro_ guarding the casino tonight?! Why not Lockeye or Fishjaw who were, as Clive knew, free for tonight?!

“Oi, what are YOU doing wearing the boss’s getup? Is this your idea of a joke?”

“No, no, not at all-,” the Professor tried to argue but was quickly cut off.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen any of you ‘round here before.” _Couldn’t this guy open his mouth and talk properly?_ Clive gritted his teeth but found himself stepping halfway in front of Luke as Bostro let his gaze run over them. He didn’t know what the bulky fellow was planning next but he didn’t want the boy to get hurt. Why did the Professor have to bring him here?

“Yes, well, we don’t often get a chance to visit this _fine_ establishment of yours,” he answered.

 _‘Very charming, Professor’_ , Clive thought, ‘ _But this won’t bring us anywhere.’_

They needed to leave. Immediately. Of all people, Dimitri had _Bostro_ guard the casino tonight. Clive knew that the Gilded Seven was Bostro’s favourite hangout, yet it had been Dimitri who had placed him here tonight.

_You’ll pay for this, Dimitri._

Bostro scrapped his head upon Layton’s words. His proper language was probably a bit too much for the fellow. “Dunno about that,” he then answered, “but I’m gonna need you to come with me for some questioning. This way, you three.”

_Oh oh. Bad, bad, very bad, EXTREMELY BAD!_

Clive quickly pushed Luke aside. “Professor, run away while you can!” he shouted as he faced Bostro already knowing that it had been a mistake. But he had to act like the future Luke would have. (Yet, he also wouldn’t have been able to stand the little one being hurt. He was still a child, after all.)

Bostro slapped him so hard on his still bruised cheek that Clive was thrown to the floor. All the air was forced out of his lungs and he couldn’t breathe for a moment, seeing blurry stars only. Then, he felt someone pull him up by his shoulders. He couldn’t figure out who it was but waited for the next punch.

“Quickly, you two! This way!” he heard the Professor’s voice right in front of him and forced himself to follow the order. He pushed Luke behind one of the countless slot machines which bordered the passageway they were running down. He continued running but only until he heard the first shot. _Dimitri had had them bring guns with them?! When had that happened?!_

“Don’t let them escape!”, he heard Bostro shout angrily. This would be a bit of a problem. Clive laid his head back against the slot machine he was leaning against. His face hurt, and he was boiling with anger. How were they supposed to get out of that?! Behind him (and next to him), he heard people scream in fear and agony, the bullets striking, and parts of the slot machines being demolished. This had turned into utter chaos rather quickly and Clive was already beginning to think about a safe route to the back exit when he suddenly heard something odd right next to him.

He straightened himself right in time to see the Professor hiding behind the slot machine right next to him.

“Do you see a way out of this?” Clive asked him. Because he surely didn’t. Except for the back door.

But the Professor nodded. “I do, but I’ll need your help!”

This was the second time within five minutes that the man surprised Clive. Not only that he had saved him _again_ , no, he also had an idea how to solve this mess. He helped Layton collect and assemble the broken off parts of the slot machines until they had something like a gun that worked with coins. And pretty good as well!

Clive was honestly surprised when he saw Bostro and his fellows escaping. After all, they where only little cowards, it seemed like…

“We gave them a taste of their own medicine!” he heard Luke say with utter conviction once the group and most visitors had escaped the building.

Clive frowned with a little smile. “Funny… I don’t remember you helping…” he said but he felt kind of relieved that the boy didn’t get hurt.

Luke turned around angrily. “Look, you’re me”, he explained and crossed his arms in front of his chest smugly, “so that means I get some credit for assisting.”

“Oh, is that so?” Clive replied and scrapped the back of his head. What else was he supposed to say? 

“That’s very… interesting logic,” the Professor agreed, and Clive had a feeling that Luke had never been happier in his entire life.

He shook his head chuckling. “Well, we should hurry. I don’t want to spend anymore time in here than I have to.”

He could finally bring them outside. As the fresh, cold air hit his face he hissed because of the pain in his left cheek which he had forgotten due to the recent events.

“Are you alright?” Layton asked and examined the wound. Clive nodded and let him. There was no point in refusing him. The warmth of his fingers felt comforting. He quickly pushed his hand away.

“I’m alright, Professor. Thank you.” He smiled at the older man, then at the young boy who was studying him with big eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. We can bear more than you think,” he smirked and poked his arm to cheer him up.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Luke asked as they made their way down Flatstone Street.

“Of course, it does. But it is bearable.”

They fell in silence until Luke spoke again. “So, um, Mr. Triton, where are we headed?”

Clive almost burst out laughing at the name. “Luke, please call me anything but Mr. Triton. It’s really strange being called that by myself,” he grinned.

“It’s pretty awkward for me, too,” he admitted, “But what else am I supposed to call you?”

_How about ‘Luke’? You’re not the only person being in the entire universe called that, you know?_

“I don’t see why you both can’t be called Luke,” the Professor interfered, “Should the need to distinguish you two apart arise, you can be Big Luke and you Little Luke.” _Thank god, at least one can still think straight._

It was obvious that ‘Little Luke’ wasn’t happy with this choice of name. But the decision was made and after a second, on Clive’s side pretty awkward greeting between the two Lukes the three could finally make their way out of this part of town.

The fact that Luke was quite a funny boy wasn’t anything new to Clive. Yet, when he saw how the younger one greeted a scientist for no reason, he frowned. Funny and naïve, Luke was for sure.

“Hmm… How odd,” the Professor murmured which caused Clive who had already taken up on their oath again to stop and turn around.

“What’s odd, Professor?” Luke asked the exact same question he had bee about to ask.

“Take a look at the ground, Luke,” he instructed the two boys who followed the order swiftly. Wet footsteps.

 _‘Of course, they are wet’_ , Clive found himself thinking _, ‘The scientist just came from the research lab. There's always a bit of water in the underground tunnel.’_

But that was something Layton and Luke couldn’t know. So, Clive held his mouth shut and looked as bewildered and worried as Luke.

“Hey, you know,” Luke suddenly asked coming up to Clive’s side when they had almost arrived at their destination, “There’s something I’ve been wondering about.”

“What’s on your mind?” Clive asked friendly.

“Well, a time machine able to take people to any point in time could really change the world. Not just that – it could improve people’s lives!”

“Yes, it certainly has the potential to do that,” Clive agreed.

“So, even though the machine could do so much for people, you want to stop it from being made,” he concluded anticipating the elder’s answer.

“Think about this scenario. Imagine there’s this bully who’s always giving you trouble.”

“Go on.” ‘ _Shut up, I wasn’t done talking yet_.’

Clive went on explaining how many people apparently would use the time machine for causing even worse problems than they already did in the present. Luckily, Luke understood even though he couldn’t think of anything so bad his beloved Professor could do. ‘ _Well’_ , Clive thought, ‘ _You haven’t met Dimitri yet._ ’

They entered the restaurant Clive had intended to get to the entire time. Shipley had already arrived, and Luke recognized him immediately. Clive introduced them properly before he got back to business.

“Shipley, did you manage to do some reconnaissance work in Chinatown, as I asked?”

He didn’t really listen as Shipley told them about what he had done as he already knew all of this. He knew how to get to Chinatown, how to get to the Towering Pagoda, how to avoid the goons smartly. He watched Layton’s and Luke’s faces twist with emotions.

They believed everything.

“He’s been missing for ten years,” Clive interfered as they got to talk about Hawks. Hawks who was held hostage up in the Towering Pagoda. This spectacle had satisfied Clive extremely.

“Do you suppose evil Layton might have abducted the prime minister in addition to all those scientists?” Clive wanted to know from Layton. ‘ _Come on, Professor. How much do you really know? Don’t you want him to be abducted and being hurt for what he did to Claire? Wouldn’t you like to do so yourself_?’

“We won’t know until we check the facts for ourselves.” His face didn’t give away anything which disappointed Clive a bit. He had expected more. But, then again, the Professor was a master at hiding his true emotions. It would probably take a bit more to tickle them out of him.

Shipley explained them the best way to get to Chinatown and left soon after to get some sleep but not without telling them that he would be here again tomorrow if they needed any help.

“I agree with him, we all should get some sleep. It was a long day, after all. Get some sleep and set out for Chinatown without me. We will meet there tomorrow. All right?”

He noticed how Luke wanted to disagree, but a yawn prevented him from doing so. Clive and Layton watched him before the older man turned around. “I agree with you. We will be meeting you in front of Chinatown tomorrow. Please, look after yourself, Luke.”

“But I’m always… oh, you were talking to him again.”

Clive smiled. “It’s good to hear words like those from you in these uncertain times, Professor. It sure provides some comfort.” He shortly touched the brim of his hat. “Sleep well, you two.”

He quickly left and made his way to the left instead of the right towards his apartment.

He had to settle a score with Dimitri.


	11. The King and his Pawns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire took a shaky breath. “You… you might have tricked him into thinking that this is the future. But you won’t be able to make him think that this Hershel is his future self. He’s too good for that. He is… too good,” she said. But to Clive, it sounded more like a question.  
> “That might be the case. It was Dimitri’s idea after all, not mine. But the point is… there’s a high possibility that it happened this way. You know that, right?”  
> Her lower lip shivered. “I know,” she whispered. 
> 
> This was like a game. A sick, mad game they had to finish playing because once started there was no way out than winning or loosing.

25th November 1974

*

“What were you thinking?!”

“Claire...”

“I’m not talking about that you didn’t even deem it necessary to tell me the truth, but you made him the scapegoat! Why? Dimitri, I don’t understand you!” Claire was furious. And desperate. They were standing in Dimitri’s office after some of his colleagues had come to him in the middle of the night. Their loud voices had woken up Claire and had ensured that she had been able to overhear everything. And Dimitri had not been happy in the slightest when she had shown up in his office as well and demanded to know what was going on as well.

And what she’d had to hear had almost made sure that she fainted.

“If I hadn’t woken up, would you ever have told me about all of this? Or would you have just kept me in the dark just like you did the past two months?!” she yelled at him. Yet she had to gulp back tears at the same time. She wasn’t one to cry easily but Dimitri’s betrayal weighed heavily on her. And the certainty that Clive had been right.

“I barely recognise you anymore, Dimitri…”

“As I said,” he muttered when he was sure that she wouldn’t finish her sentence anymore. His voice was husky, barely more than a whisper. “I did it for you, Claire. When you arrived here you were so confused and devastated, I couldn’t – I couldn’t bear the thought of putting you through more than what you’ve already been through, I... I know I should have told you, but… you were looking so sad that I couldn’t bring myself to make you even sadder. And when you were happy, I couldn’t bear the thought of making you unhappy again. I’m so sorry, Claire.”

“That’s not an excuse!” she hissed.

Dimitri took a step towards her, relief floating him when she didn’t step back, and put his hands on her upper arms. The pain in her eyes hurt him. “As I said, I did this for _you_ , Claire. I never knew if the time machine worked or not, I just – “

He couldn’t continue as the door was torn open and Clive burst into the room. If one had called Claire angry just minutes ago, it was nothing against the young man. His face was red, and he was practically steaming with anger and rage.

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” he yelled at Dimitri without any kind of greeting or taking a breath. His breathing was accelerated as if he had been running up the entire Towering Pagoda. “What were you thinking putting _Bostro_ on guard in the casino?!”

Dimitri merely raised an eyebrow but didn’t seem too impressed by Clive’s raptures, and took a step back. “I needed someone to guard the entrance. Bostro was free for the evening. And I don’t remember owing you an explanation for anything, Clive,” he said calmly and with a hint of arrogance in his voice which didn’t go unnoticed.

“No, you clearly don’t. But you do, when they have _guns_! We almost died in there! And where the hell did you find so many goons?!” His breathing had slowed down by now, but he was still at the verge of another outbreak.

“Guns?!” Claire exclaimed, her voice high pitched. It was only then, that Clive really looked at her for the first time since he entered the room. He hadn’t seemed to notice her at all.

“Oh, you’re here, too?”, he asked, almost stunned. Then, he smirked. “That is good. I hope Dimitri finally told you what is going in here. Because, if he didn’t,” he turned towards Dimitri, the smile vanishing from his face in an instant, “I will.”

“No, he won’t,” Dimitri said very, very quietly. His voice was not more than a whisper, easily carried away if one didn’t listen closely. But it had the power to send shivers up and down Claire’s spine. The more time she spent here, the more she got the feeling of not knowing Dimitri nearly as good as she thought.

When he turned back to her, his gaze grew soft. This somehow frightened Claire even more. She resisted the urge to take a step back. “Claire, as I told you, I did this for you. Please, believe me when I say that I had no intentions of keeping any of these information from you. I just…”

“You just haven’t found the right time yet to tell me that you made Hershel the scapegoat in all of this?” she finished the sentence for him sarcastically. She didn’t know whether she was being brave or reckless. It was a fine line between these two. “Dimitri, why? You know that I love him. How could you do this _to_ me if you did it _for_ me?”

*

 _Yes Dimitri,_ Clive thought, _why would you do such a thing?_ He had to stop himself from smirking and instead crossed his arms in front of his chest. He watched the scene unfolding before him intently. He could see the moment, Dimitri shut down, how his face turned first white with shock, then red with anger before it returned to its natural colour. He liked seeing his struggle to find an answer that wasn’t a lie and wouldn’t cause Claire to turn around and leave him. Leave him for the man she _loved_. He was like a whining dog that was begging for the attention of its owner. It was a pathetic play to watch. He probably hadn’t expected this to happen, in contrast to Clive. Had Dimitri really thought he could keep it from Claire forever?

Apparently.

 _Idiot_.

But he wouldn’t help Dimitri out. They were colleagues, yes, but after Dimitri put Bostro and his goons onto Clive and the Professor, he didn’t owe the man anything. Except for a tiny fit of anger.

“It was the only way,” Dimitri said again. Claire wanted to respond but he cut her off. “We had to bring him here without him calling the police or anything. And if I had just gone to him and tried to explain everything, he would have turned me down. I couldn’t risk that! After all, I had no specific plan in the beginning, and I couldn’t afford such a risk. Only when Clive turned up.”

Both of them turned to him. Clive barely raised an eyebrow and shrugged while he wanted to murder Dimitri for bringing him into this. That was his battle to fight, not Clive’s.

“Then, we had a plan,” Dimitri continued, “and it involved this scenario, so Clive could bring Hershel to us. Believe me, Claire, if I had had the time, I would have found another solution. But we couldn’t afford wasting anymore time once you showed up here. I wanted it was different.”

Clive watched her closely. No one could tell him that she was actually _believing_ the stuff Dimitri was telling her. He watched how Claire ran a hand through her hair and folded her arms. How she bit her lip while she considered Dimitri’s words. Would she really believe them?

She sighed. “Dimitri, this… sorry, this is too much. We can talk about this later. I…” She looked at him as if she wanted to say more but then shook her head and left the room. Clive smirked. This would be uncomfortable for him now, but he cut off Dimitri before he could even get started.

“You gave them guns? We almost died in there!”, he hissed, changing the topic completely without giving Dimitri even the slightest chance to keep up. “Why didn’t you just let Fisheye or Lockjaw keep guard at the casino? They _know_ me and wouldn’t have almost killed me!” 

Dimitri merely shrugged but the anger was boiling within him, Clive could sense it. “Bostro was free for tonight, as I said. And he likes the casino.”

“As if you care about what the goons like or not!”

“You listen closely to me now.” Suddenly, Dimitri was standing right in front of him. Clive was too surprised to even react. He took a step back and Dimitri smirked. The tables had turned. “You won’t tell Claire anything. Got it? She knows what she needs to know, and that’s it, do you understand me?”

Clive raised an eyebrow.

“Or I will ensure that you’ll never leave…” He interrupted himself and seemed to think for a second. His smirk grew wider. “No, actually I’ll ensure that you won’t see your parents again. You surely understand _that_ , do you?” he asked sweetly although it wasn’t meant as a question.

Of course, Clive did understand this. He understood it very well. And he couldn’t believe that he had ever agreed to work with this man. But, then again, what had he expected? That Dimitri would never use his parents against him? The fact that they were the only ones Clive loved and would do anything for. Had he really believed this?

When he gritted his teeth and nodded without looking at Dimitri, it was his turn to feel like the whining dog begging for attention. He was the pathetic one now. He couldn’t use Claire against Dimitri. He couldn’t blackmail him that he would tell Claire everything because she knew about most things now. The Professor was here, Dimitri could just let him be kidnapped and locked up in the lab where Claire would never see him. He had no ace up his sleeve left. Except his alliance with Claire which he could never, under no circumstances, reveal to Dimitri.

Dimitri smiled at him as if he was a kid that had just cleaned up his room and shown his parents proudly. “Magnificent. Now then, I suppose you leave. I think this would be in everyone’s best interest. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow and we don’t want Hershel or the little boy to wonder why you’re so tired, do we?” He knew he had the upper hand and Clive hated it so much.

Clive looked him straight in the eye. He was so ready to murder him. “When this is over,” he murmured darkly, “I’ll make you pay for this.”

When he turned around to leave, Dimitri’s voice followed him. “I’d like to see you try.”

A shiver ran down Clive’s spine.

 

*

26th November 1974

*

The violent knocking on his door in the early morning roused him from his sleep. Instead of groaning and turning around as he would usually do, he awoke with a start. He broke out into cold sweat upon remembering the last time someone had knocked on his door so furiously. What was Dimitri up to this time? Clive didn’t want to admit it, but he was scared. Scared that Dimitri carried out his threat and that he would never see his parents again. The only reason why he did all of this. The fear that all of his work might be for nothing made his heart pound faster.

He forced himself to breath deeply while he got up and threw on some trousers and a plain black shirt. If Dimitri did that, he’d go to the police and tell them that he knew where the Prime Minister was. The rest, like the copy of London, would be up to Dimitri to explain then. Yet he found himself anxious when it came to open the door, and he hesitated.

“Clive, I know that you are home! Open the door!” he heard someone hiss on the other side. He opened the door relieved. He had never been happier to see Claire. But… the relief vanished quickly when he saw the expression on her face. _Anger_ didn’t even come close to it. She was more like an avenger angel coming to take revenge on her victims when she stormed into his flat and shut the door close.

“I hope you have a bloody good explanation for why you didn’t demand it necessary to tell me about what is going on here!” she hissed furiously. Though she tried to stay quiet which he really appreciated (since it was barely six in the morning), she didn’t quite succeed.

Clive shrugged. Now that he knew that it hadn’t been Dimitri’s goons in front of his door, he was calm. “It wasn’t my responsibility to tell you,” he merely said. He could practically hear how she gritted her teeth.

“Not your responsibility?”, she repeated quietly. Too quiet. “It wasn’t your _responsibility_?! I thought I could trust you, Clive! I _trusted_ you that you would be the one to tell me what exactly is going on here! How could you-”

“Because,” he interrupted her abruptly, “staked are high for me as well. But you don’t have any idea about that as usual, do you?”

“How should I when no one is telling me anything?!”

“I thought you could figure it out like everyone with a good common sense. You are a pathetic researcher, Claire,” he hissed. She backed away. Suddenly, all the anger had vanished from her face, and was replaced by hurt. He might have gone a bit too far.

He massaged his forehead and squinted his eyes. “Look,” he said, softer this time, when he opened them again. For a moment, he felt like Dimitri.

He hated it.

“Dimitri’s main goal might be you, but I’m just in this project involved because I want to save my parents and all the other people.” _The people Dimitri didn’t care about,_ he thought but didn’t say it. And because he wanted revenge. But he didn’t tell her that either. “And if Dimitri can’t save you, he’ll never save the people that died this day alongside you. You can’t tell me you don’t want them to be saved, do you?” He didn’t dare tell her about his parents and how desperately he wanted to see them again. It was enough that Dimitri knew about it.  

Clive hoped so much that she would agree with him. If she didn’t, if she was so caught up in taking her revenge on Hawks, then Clive would have a severe problem.

But she nodded, and he supressed a relieved breath. “Of course, I want this! But how in the world was it necessary to make Hershel the scapegoat? I don’t get this plan. It makes no sense!”

“Oh, you’re not the only one thinking this way, I can assure you that,” Clive answered lightly. “It was Dimitri’s idea after all, not mine. I told you he has got it bad for you and doesn’t want you to meet the Professor under any circumstances. I could tell you why, but I think you should figure this out yourself.” He crossed his arms and waited.

Waited for the realization. He smiled contently when it swapped over Claire’s face, when her eyes grew wide and she twisted her mouth in disgust. Her skin had turned into a rather unhealthy shade of white. “No… You’re lying. Dimitri… he wouldn’t…”

“I’m not lying, Claire. I’ve been working together with him a bit longer than you. I know him. And, in fact, he _did_.”

She shook her head not wanting to believe him. But she couldn’t disagree anymore, Clive could see it in her eyes. She knew but didn’t want to admit it. “No. No, he wouldn’t… he knows how dear Hershel is to me!”

“And if he knows,” Clive questioned, “Why do you think Dimitri made him the scapegoat? Why him? Do you have a decent answer for that?” She didn’t. Clive could see the realization on her face, her reluctance to accept what was right in front of her.

Clive sighed. “Claire, it’s been only a few months for you, but over ten years for them. You could even say twenty according to this time. He has no reason to disbelieve this future he has to face here. Time has its way of changing people. It’s our cruellest enemy. And the Professor knows that.”  
Just like Clive did. Every day he was confronted with it, fought it, the forgetting of his parents, the constant change of Dimitri’s mind and the pace around him. Time seemed to fly by. And it frightened him. That one day, time had passed so quickly that he’d forgotten what his mother’s gentle smile looked like, what his father’s laugh sounded like.

Claire took a shaky breath. “You… you might have tricked him into thinking that this is the future. But you won’t be able to make him think that _this_ Hershel is his future self. He’s too good for that. He is… too good,” she said. But to Clive, it sounded more like a question.

He resisted the urge to shrug and smile as he would usually do. But he didn’t wrap Claire in a soothing embrace either (even though he really wanted to and she looked like she desperately needed one).  
“That might be the case. It was Dimitri’s idea after all, not mine. But the point is… there’s a high possibility that it happened this way. You know that, right?”

Her lower lip shivered. “I know,” she whispered, her voice barely to be heard, after several seconds of silence. The thought of her Hershel being this… this man full of hate and abhorrence made her want to cry and punch someone, something, _anything_ for being so helpless. All she could do was watch this game unfold before her eyes and awaiting the outcome anxiously.

Clive placed a soothing hand on her shoulder. He hesitated but carefully wrapped her in a hopefully comforting embrace then. Claire clung to him, her arms around his waist, her shivering body in its most vulnerable state right between his arms. She would be so easy to crush right now.

Clive immediately despised himself for such a thought. She was the closest he could consider a friend down here. He wasn’t supposed to think things like this. He tightened his grip a bit when he felt her shoulders quiver. She needed comfort. Not someone who thought about how to manipulate her the best way possible.

He smirked as he thought of Dimitri. He would kill Clive for being in his place right now. But he shouldn’t think things like this either.

When Claire had calmed down, he gently placed his hands on her shoulders and moved away from her. He noticed that she was only a bit smaller than him. When he walked around with his head high and an arrogant smirk, he always felt so big, unbeatable. But he had to realize that he was simply another of Dimitri’s pawns, just like her. But together, and with a few other pawns, they could overthrow the king. He was foolish to think that he was so much better than Dimitri. Wasn’t he just as immoral as him?

“I know this is hard for you. But this is a put-up job. One we can’t stop playing. You have to go back and tell him what he wants to hear. Only this way, we can win,” he said but he already knew that Claire was aware of that.

“I know. I know.” She nodded as if she had to ensure that she actually understood her own words. She stepped back and Clive’s hands fell from her shoulders. He let them hang next to his body lifelessly. “I should be going back then and… and talk to him I think.”

He nodded and accompanied her to the door. She didn’t thank him or anything. What for anyways? But Clive felt like he had to say some more before she slipped through his fingers once more. He didn’t know when and under which circumstances he would meet her again.

“Claire, wait.” He grabbed her by her wrist. She turned around and looked at him confused. 

The words only came slowly. “Dimitri has… a hold over me because… of my parents,” he whispered. He didn’t know why he didn’t let go. He just couldn’t. He needed something he could cling to know just like her a few minutes earlier. “He threatens me to not bring them back when I don’t help him or tell you something he doesn’t approve of. He can’t know about any of this.” He gulped and looked at the ground. He couldn’t meet her eyes. “Please.”

Claire starred at him. She couldn’t believe her ears. Never before had she heard him say this word. She was so stunned that she couldn’t say or do anything. Neither did Clive. So, they just stood there and simply looked at each other until they heard the neighbouring door open. It was like they awoke from a deep slumber and quickly broke apart. Clive returned to his usual self, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. Claire did the same. They waited until the elderly woman had mustered and wished them a nice morning and left. Claire’s gaze followed her but when she returned it to Clive it seemed like he hadn’t averted his eyes even once.

“I would never tell Dimitri. I promise.” She smiled at him one last time before she finally left.

When she made her way down the hallway, Clive’s silent “Thank you” followed her until the heavy silence of the Towering Pagoda drowned every upcoming thought and the burden of what was to come made her steps heavy.

When she faced Dimitri, it was something she despised doing for the first time since she knew him.

But this was a game, Dimitri’s game, and she had to finish playing it.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> So, I'm back... after five months. Life just hit me very hard. But I made it back and I guess I'm good :)  
> This chapter turned out a lot different than what I had planned but I love it. I love how it turned out (and, honestly, I'm surprised I like it this much).  
> I don't know when I'll be able to upload again but I will. I will finish this fanfiction and if it takes me 10 years. I'll also be editing the chapters I already uploaded in the near future 'cause I noticed quite a few mistakes and things I want to change. 
> 
> I hope you liked it 
> 
> Kind regards,  
> Melinaa


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